UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello,
I barely know the basics, but I am very determined to learn. I want to parse a few characters from each row, use that string to search another file and display the line number where I found the value in the file. I don't know if this can all be done on the command line, so I am creating a shell script that does this so far:

DIR = /cygdrive/c/temp/9*.txt
for item in parseFile.txt
do
foundValue = $item //do not know what command to use to search for a
//value and to parse from the file.
egrep -l "$item" $DIR //how do I display the line number where I found
//the item
done

Thanks for your help!

grep -n show the line number.

Your explanation is not clear enough to me for me to provide any more help.
What do you mean by parse - find the first 3 characters, find the 16th field, what?

Your for loop needs help

Code:

while read item
do
 # stuff goes here
done < parsefile.txt

On variable assignments - NO spaces allowed

Code:

foundValue = $item  # bad
foundValue="$item"  # good  I put quotes around item in case there were spaces in $item
# quotes may not be needed - I dunno.

Hi Jim,
Thanks for your feedback and valuable information.

Perhaps I should also add that I'm using the Borne Shell and now realize that I cannot use the
"For Do Done" loop.

I want to search a file for a value, then search if this value is contained in another file. For example: Parse 21909 from FileA.txt (e.g. 1234|3234|21909), then search within several other files for 21909 . If value exist, display file name and line number where this value exists. Then repeat parsing in FileA.txt for the next value 97909 (e.g. 5284|1134|97909), search 97909 within several other files and see if this values exist. If so, display file name and line number where this value exists.

Thanks again!