topic Re: Help with SED and variable for regexpr in Operating System - HP-UX

Help with SED and variable for regexpr

dev44 — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:37:44 GMT

Hi,

I want to be able to find a string and then print the next line. The string is a variable. If I hard code it in the below line, it works but it won't take a variable. I have tried double quotes; single quotes; back slashes, etc. Maybe not the right combo or syntax though.

cat file|sed -n '/$VAR/{n;p;}'

Re: Help with SED and variable for regexpr

James R. Ferguson — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:16:48 GMT

Hi:

You need double quotes to allow the shell to expand the variable:

# VAR=whatever
# sed -n "/$VAR/{n;p;}" file

Notice that the 'cat' into a pipe is superfluous. The 'sed' reads STDIN just fine, saving you a process.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: Help with SED and variable for regexpr

dev44 — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:24:39 GMT

Yay...thanks!!

Re: Help with SED and variable for regexpr

Dennis Handly — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:44:57 GMT

Note: GNU grep has a -A # option to print context around your match.