Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi!

I want to print selected lines from a file using awk.The file contains 6 columns(dates,time,title,description,location and attendees). So i ask the user to insert the date that he wants to display and then search the file for the matching dates so i can print the line.

echo Give the date you wish to display
read date

awk '{if ($1=$dates) print $1"\t"$2"\t"$3"\t"$4"\t"$5"\t"$6}'<file

the above is not working..it prints all the file!!

If you can help me you will save me!I am a beginner:P

Code:

awk '$1 == d {print $1"\t"$2"\t"$3"\t"$4"\t"$5"\t"$6}' d="${dates}" <file 
OR
awk -v d="${dates}" '$1 == d {print $1"\t"$2"\t"$3"\t"$4"\t"$5"\t"$6}' <file

If you are simply trying to print any line that matches, you might be able to skip the explicit print command in:

Code:

awk -v d="${dates}" '$1 == d {print $1"\t"$2"\t"$3"\t"$4"\t"$5"\t"$6}' <file

and simply

Code:

awk -v d="${dates}" '$1 == d' <file

thank you VERY much!!It works perfectly!!

can u help me on how to check that the user inputs the following format on variable([a,b,c])?

My crystal ball is fuzzy - I cannot see any ([a,b,c]) variables in ANY format.

the user inputs names that have to be inside square brackets
[John,Dan]
I want to check if the input is correct...