CODEWITHSUNDEEP
unixgrep
Raj
Raj

Reputation: 502

grep not giving expected result

I am having trouble understanding following grep operation

a=jQuery.Uno
echo $a | grep -i "jquerya*"

why is above query returning jQuery.Uno?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 57

Answers (1)

devnull
devnull

Reputation: 123488

The * quantifier matches 0 (zero) or more.

In the string, jQuery.Uno there is 0 a after y. As such, the regex jquerya* matches the string.

If you wanted one or more of a, then instead say:

grep -i "jquerya\{1,\}"

or, if your version of grep supports extended regular expressions:

grep -iE "jquerya+"

Moreover, instead of echo "$var" | grep ..., it is better to make use of herestrings if your shell supports those:

grep -iE "jquerya+" <<< "$a"

Upvotes: 1

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