Search for some pattern and then delete N records after it?

Passions · 11-11-2008, 01:35 PM

So I found a great awk line to search for a pattern and then print the N record after it.

iii) Print the N records after some pattern:

Code:

awk 'c&&!--c;/pattern/{c=N}' file

It's really hard to understand though with the c&&c.

How can I instead of printing the Nth record, delete it?

For example, I have a txtfile:

List of Names
Bob
Janet
Harry

List of Groups
Family
Party
Coworkers

If I do awk 'c&&!--c;/List of/{c=2}' txtfile
It will print:

Janet
Party

Instead of print, how can I delete them? I know with sed I can do

Code:

sed -n '/List of/{n;n;d;}' file

But the number of n's needs to be a variable as I have numerous records.

Thanks!!!

jan61 · 11-11-2008, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Passions

...If I do awk 'c&&c--;/List of/{c=2}' txtfile
It will print:

Janet
Party
...

Not on my system:

Code:

jan@jack:~/tmp/awk_quest> awk 'c&&c--;/List of/{c=2}' data
Bob
Janet
Family
Party

Try this:

Code:

jan@jack:~/tmp/awk_quest> awk '/List of/{c=NR} NR==c+2 {getline}{print}' data
List of Names
Bob
Harry

List of Groups
Family
Coworkers

Jan

EDIT: To put the number into a variable:

Code:

jan@jack:~/tmp/awk_quest> awk -v nr=2 '/List of/{c=NR} NR==c+nr {getline}{print}' data
List of Names
Bob
Harry

List of Groups
Family
Coworkers

Passions · 11-11-2008, 03:49 PM

Hi,

You're right. I goofed the code on printing the Nth line. It should be:

Code:

awk 'c&&!--c;/pattern/{c=N}' file

I tried your suggestion on deleting the Nth line.

Code:

awk -v nr=3 '/List of/{c=NR} NR==c+nr {getline}{print}' bob

It works well for nr=2, but when I go to the 3rd record it spits out:

List of hosts
Bob
Janet

List of hosts
Family
Party
Coworkers

Coworkers did not get deleted for some reason. I'll try to work on this more, but thanks for your help!

jan61 · 11-12-2008, 01:23 PM

Moin,

is the "Coworkers" line the last in the file? Does it end with a newline? I can reproduce the effect, when the line doesn't have a newline.

Jan