Shell Programming and Scripting

Hello folks,
Here's how my current egrep command works:

Code:

egrep "NY|DC|LA|VA|MD" state_data.txt

I am planning to use a file to enter all allowable state values like say a new state_names.lookup with the following data:

Code:

NY
DC
LA
VA
MD

Code:

egrep "`cat state_names.lookup`" state_data.txt

if i execute the above command, it only gives me the entries with NY and all the below values such as DC, LA, VA, MD etc.. are ignored even though there are other states with data in state_data.txt file.

How can I make this work ? My thought is if I get more states in future, I just edit and add more entries to state_names.lookup file rather than to edit the actual command...

Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Carl

Moderator's Comments:

Please use code tags. Video tutorial on how to use them. Thank you.

Try:

Code:

grep -f state_names.lookup state_data.txt

thanks. your solution worked but i had to use egrep (and not grep as you mentioned)

Hi calredd, why did you need egrep (or grep -E) for extended regular expressions ? I thought you file "state_names.lookup" contained just plain strings. What happened?

I first ran the same was you suggested but it didnt work...

>grep -f state_names.lookup states_input.txt
grep: illegal option -- f
Usage: grep -hblcnsviw pattern file . . .


but when I change grep to egrep, bingo it worked....
yes my state_names.lookup file has plain strings (one entry per line)

O, I see.. Solaris. /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -f should work then. Interesting, so egrep and fgrep do have the -f option, but regular grep does not. Thanks for reporting back...

S.


--
If I were using Solaris right now, I think the first thing I would do is change my path to:

Code:

export PATH=/usr/xpg4/bin:$PATH

And be done with it...

Sorry, didnt mention I was using solaris... yep, got the egrep to work, so no worries..
Thanks again.