Hi,

I have a list of names and I want to basically take each name and search a given file to see if the name is in that file. If it is then delete the name from the list and if it isn't then leave it. Anyone know how to script something like this. Here's an example of what I mean:

List 1:
Tom
Bob
John
Dave

List 2:
Anthony
Ed
Bob
Dave

Comparing List 1 to List 2 results in List1 being:
Tom
John

And just to note, List 2 might not be a list, could just be a text document with the names in there but the script should work about the same way. Can anyone help with this? Thanks!

Your example seems to be backwards from your worded request. List1 should be Tom John?

Anyway, one way to do what you seem to ask

shoot sorry, my example didnt make sense. It is backwards ^^*

Thanks!

here is with awk considering backwards option

Quick question on this. It works nicely when there are just 2 list but what when I try it for a file that has some sentences it doesn't seem to work. For example, List1 is as above but List2 is something like:


List of names

Names:
Anthony
Ed
Bob
Dave

After running the command List1 is empty, like it couldn't match anything from List2 due to the added lines in the beginning. Any ideas? Thanks!

Ok further testing shows that the grep has problems when List2 has a line with nothing on it. Basically it works when there are no blank lines so doing something like:

Dave

Bob
Jim
Tim

doesn't work. Is there any way to fix grep for this?

Did you get a chance to try out what I had posted ?

Any problems with that !