CODEWITHSUNDEEP
stringawkformat
Monalizza
Monalizza

Reputation: 43

awk format to print lines with specific columns

I want to print only the lines that have specific string say "fgfgfg" in column 3 or column 4 and column 2 start with fg I'm using the following command but it also prints lines which doesn't have fg as the starting characters in column 2?

 awk '{if (($3 == "fgfgfg" || $4 == "fgfgfg") && $2 ~ /fg/) print $0}' file_name

the must condition is that column $2 must start with 'fg' and I also want to add a condition that column 2 start with fg and followed by 5 digits? any help please!!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 136

Answers (2)

hek2mgl
hek2mgl

Reputation: 157947

To make sure that column 2 starts with fg you need to use:

$2 ~ /^fg/

note the ^. It is the start of the line anchor. If you omit it the regex would match fg at any position within the string.

Btw, you can simplify the command:

awk '(($3 == "fgfgfg") || ($4 == "fgfgfg")) && $2 ~ /^fg/' file

Upvotes: 1

Ed Morton
Ed Morton

Reputation: 203209

 awk '(($3 == "fgfgfg") || ($4 == "fgfgfg")) && ($2 ~ /^fg[0-9]{5}/)' file_name

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions