print when field is a certain value 2

[TheDash]

Hi,

I would like to print all lines of a file where the second field $2 is abc. Could that be done using awk? If not please let me know what can be used. Thanks.

 

[p5wizard]

yes, [tt]awk[/tt] can do that.

HTH,

p5wizard

 

[TheDash]

Thanks ... I got it..

 

[PHV]

The simplest awk way:

awk '$2=="abc"' /path/to/input

Hope This Helps, PH.
FAQ219-2884
FAQ181-2886

 

[TheDash]

Thanks PHV.

awk '$2==$var {print $2}' /path/to/input

I also used

cat /path/to/input | awk 'match($2,"$var") == 0 {print $2}'`

They are not working for some reason. Any ideas please. Thanks again.

 

[p5wizard]

because first of all, $ doesn't work inside single quotes...
and second, if $ would work inside single quotes, you'd have some trouble getting the $ character in $2 and you'd be comparing $2 to the awk variable with name as specified by $awk ...

so:

wrong: awk '$2==$var' /path/to/file
(amounts to awk '$2==$0' /path/to/file)
wrong: awk "\$2==$var" /path/to/file
(if in shell var="abc", amounts to awk "$2==abc" /path/to/file
which is probably awk "$2==0" /path/to/file)

some solutions:

right: awk "\$2==\"$var\"" /path/to/file (use double quotes, escape special chars where needed)
right: awk '$2=="'$var'"' /path/to/file (use single quotes, but interrupt the single quoted string where needed)
right: awk -v var=$var '$2==var' /path/to/file (use -v to preload an awk variable)



HTH,

p5wizard