UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Can someone please help me to learn how to deal with loops, arrays and grep?
I have two arrays (lets say I and j) each in a separate file
And have file with lines of data I need to extract, such as
And I need each of these names into one new file; so each name category will have its own file
Now sure what I think is the right thing and I don't know the syntax... so would appreciate your help

Code:

while ( i =1 and i<n){
	while (j= 1 and i<n){
		grep “i.*j” maindatafile.txt > $1file.txt
		j ++
	}
	i ++
}

Would something like this even work? How is it going to know what is my “I” and “J” when they are in my files? Should I give a file name?
and I wonder whether the $1file will increase as well? or shall I write something to add that as well?

Thank you in advance for your time
A-V

What's your system?

What's your shell?

I am using Cygwin on windows ... so more command like but I have Perl as well

I wrote what was in my head down as a code so I am sure that would not work with unix/cygwin

cygwin is a system that lets you install what programs you want.

What's your shell? I'm assuming BASH until you say otherwise...

Code:

for ((I=1; I<N; I++))
do
        for ((J=1; J<N; J++))
        do
                grep "$i.*$j" maindatafile
        done > outputfile$I
done

I don't think that 'grep' does what you think it does, but you haven't told me what you're trying to match either.

I think i am using shell as well

I want to match one name from names list with a family name on the family name list
but some of the lines on my maindatafile have a middle name; like Ruby Anne Smith
I want anything starting with Ruby and ending in Smith in one file.

is grep what I need to use for that?

---------- Post updated at 12:01 PM ---------- Previous update was at 11:54 AM ----------

Thank you very much for sending me the right syntax of the code

I have some question

Do I have to define I and J before that code?
or is there a way I can tell it to read from two files?

---------- Post updated 05-29-12 at 08:58 AM ---------- Previous update was 05-28-12 at 12:01 PM ----------

i have tested the code with my data and there seems to be a problem

my code now looks like this

Code:

ARRAY=(ruby kate john)
ARRAY2=(smith brown green)
ELEMENTS=${#ARRAY[@]}
ELEMENTS2=${#ARRAY2[@]}
for (( i=0;i<$ELEMENTS;i++)); do
	for (( j=0;j<$ELEMENTS2;j++)); do
    		grep “${ARRAY[${i}]}.*${ARRAY2[${j}]}” test.txt 
       done > output$1.txt
done

i dont know y i only get one output and that is for the last element in ARRAY and i get it combined, so I get an output of all in one file


so it seems to be over written but then again each should be in a separate file

can you please tell me where am I going wrong>?

First off, writing your code in MS Word has absolutely destroyed it, replacing the usual characters with malicious 'smart quotes'. Stop doing that.

Second off, you don't need arrays.

Third off, grep can match lists of names by itself.

Code:

for X in ruby kate john
do
        egrep "$X (smith|brown|green)" filename > $X.txt
done

Thanks for your replay

Oooopsss.... i didnt know that about MS word... learned one more thing

you are right, this does work and dont need arrays but

people with the same fist name and last name should do to one file; not people with same first name only.

when I used the egrep the way mentioned but it is not taking out the lines with people who have a middle name for example