Using grep to select specific patterns in text file?

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Using grep to select specific patterns in text file?

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09-30-2016

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Using grep to select specific patterns in text file?

How do I use grep to select words that start with I or O, end in box, and contain at least one letter in between them?

the text file mailinfo.txt contains

Code:

Inbox
the Inbox
Is a match box
Doesn't match
INBOX
Outbox
Outbox1
InbOX
Ibox
I box

If the command works correctly it should select

Code:

Inbox
Is a match box
Outbox

Here's what I've been trying:

Code:

grep -a  '[I|O]''[a-z].\+''box\>' mailinfo.txt

And I only get:

Code:

Is a match box
Outbox

Why doesn't it retrieve "Inbox" as well? And how to I make it?

Thanks

Last edited by rbatte1; 10-03-2016 at 05:45 AM.. Reason: Addtional code tags

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with sed:

Code:

sed -n '/^[IO].*[a-zA-Z].*box$/p' mailinfo.txt

Last edited by vgersh99; 09-30-2016 at 04:29 PM.. Reason: harderned regex

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Hello steezuschrist96,

Welcome to forums, hope you will enjoy learning and sharing knowledge here with us, could you please try following and let us know how it goes then.

Code:

awk '($0 ~ /^[IO]/ && $0 ~ /box$/ && $0 ~ /[IO].*[a-zA-Z].*box/)'  Input_file
OR more precisely
awk '($0 ~ /^[IO].*[a-zA-Z].*box$/)'   Input_file

Output will be as follows.

Code:

Inbox
Is a match box
Outbox

EDIT: You could use simple greptoo, I had tested this in GNU grep.

Code:

grep "^[IO].*[a-zA-Z].*box$"   Input_file

Thanks,
R. Singh

Last edited by RavinderSingh13; 09-30-2016 at 04:41 PM.. Reason: Added one more solution successfully too now.

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Yes! That worked, thank you!

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Note: it is best to use character classes rather than character ranges. This will match all letters, not just the 2x26. Also, this avoid issues with collation order (for example in some locales [A-Z] might include lower case letters):

Code:

grep '^[IO].*[[:alpha:]].*box$'

For example:

Code:

$ echo 'I�box' | grep '^[IO].*[a-zA-Z].*box$' 
$ echo 'I�box' | grep '^[IO].*[[:alpha:]].*box$' 
I�box

Last edited by Scrutinizer; 10-01-2016 at 02:34 AM..

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