UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,

When we "grep" for a word in a file, it returns the lines containing the word that we searched for. Is there a way to display only the words and not the entire line containing them.

Thanks

Ananth

grep -o works on linux. Not sure of the Solaris/HP etc.

John Arackal

Or you could use sed to get a grep -o effect.

Code:

sed -n -e "s/.*\(search string\).*/\1/p" input.txt

Using grep -o in linux, it gives the list wherever the pattern appears. The file
input_file has "Hello World
Hi Hello Hello Hello
Hello
Bye
"
for eg: grep -o "Hello" input_file
Hello
Hello
Hello
Hello
Hello

sed -n -e "s/.*\(Hello\).*/\1/p" input_file
But in using sed, it prints One Hello per line, becoz of \1.

Is it any other way to print same as in linux.

TIA

Code:

sed -n -e "s/\(Hello\)/\1\\
/gp" file | sed -n -e "s/.*\(Hello\).*/\1/p"

Thanks. The output is same as expected.

It would be better if you use -w option to grep.