UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

sed -n 'N;N;N;/\nSmith\n.*\n.*$/p' infile

sed 's/^Male\|^Female/&*/g' file1 | awk -F'\n' '$2 ~ /^Smith/ {print}' RS='*'

paste - - - - < inputfile|awk '$2 ~ /Smith/ {for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) printf("%s\n",$i)}'

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# @(#) s3	Demonstrate bundling of n lines, search, unbundle.

pe() { for _i;do printf "%s" "$_i";done; printf "\n"; }
pl() { pe;pe "-----" ;pe "$*"; }
bundle() { _n=${1-2}; _s=${3-" "}; awk 'ORS=NR%'"$_n"'?'\"$_s\"':"\n"' $2 ; }
search() { _c="$1" ; _s=${2-" "} ; awk '-F'"$_s" " $_c " $3 ; }
unbundle() { _s=${1-" "} ; awk '1' RS="$_s" $2 ; }
db() { ( printf " db, ";for _i;do printf "%s" "$_i";done;printf "\n" ) >&2 ; }
db() { : ; }
C=$HOME/bin/context && [ -f $C ] && $C awk

FILE=${1-data1}

pl " Sample of the input data file:"
head -5 $FILE

pl " Modular solution, awk directly coded:"
awk 'ORS=NR%4?"@":"\n"' $FILE |
tee f1 |
awk "-F@" '
$2 ~ /Smith|Jackson/
' |
tee f2 |
awk '1' RS='@'

pl " Modular solution, function calls:"
bundle 4 $FILE "@" |
tee f1 |
# awk "-F@" ' $2 ~ /Smith|Jackson/ ' |
search ' $2 ~ /Smith|Jackson/ ' "@" |
tee f2 |
unbundle "@"

exit 0

% ./s3

Environment: LC_ALL = C, LANG = C
(Versions displayed with local utility "version")
OS, ker|rel, machine: Linux, 2.6.26-2-amd64, x86_64
Distribution        : Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.8 (lenny) 
bash GNU bash 3.2.39
awk GNU Awk 3.1.5

-----
 Sample of the input data file:
John
Barry
21/04/1988
Male
Jessica

-----
 Modular solution, awk directly coded:
Jessica
Smith
16/09/2000
Female


-----
 Modular solution, function calls:
Jessica
Smith
16/09/2000
Female

 
$ awk 'BEGIN { RS="Male|Female" } { if ($2 ~ /Smith/) { print $1, $2, $3 } }' employee.txt
Jessica Smith 16/09/2000

 
L|Employee.firstname|Jessica
L|Employee.surname|Smith
L|Employee.dob|16/09/2000
L|Employee.gender|Female