Hi,
I need to search one file based on the entry from another;
eg.
file1 has entries;

45654
34768
12345

File2 has entries

23234 somestring 4312
45654 somestring 34768
12345 somestring 45654

so I need to pick first entry in file1 which eg. '45654' and search for this entry only in 'column 1' of File2. Then save the 3rd entry (column 3) from the same line to a variable. (to be used later).
Any help would be appreciated.

hope this helps,

-c

Craig,
Your solution is missing:
45654

Keep in mind that 'join' assumes both files are sorted.

To fix your problem:
PS: I don't think this will resolve 'user_007' issue.

Here is a solution to put the values into variables:

Thanks for the responses guys.
But 'joining' isnt going to resolve my problem.

What i am trying to do is to pick one item at a time from file1 and then search the corresponding entry in file2 and save the associated value in column3 of the file 2 in a variable X.

$ cat file1
45654
34768
12345
$ cat file2
23234 somestring 4312
45654 somestring 34768
12345 somestring 45654

So e.g. my first entry in File1 is '45654'.
The corresponding value in Column3 of File2 is 34768.
So i wanted to save this value in a variable X.

User_007,
My solution does exactly what you are looking for.

You can do something like that :

This solution is acceptable only if file1 contains very few records because the file file2 is read for each record of file1.

After having read the value in the variable X, what do you want to do ?
If you don't want to update the file file2, the best way is to use the Shell_Life' solution ( item1=$1 and X=$2 ).