using variables and sed to find double spaced dates

[edwardb15]

hi,
i am trying to use sed to replace a single space in a date variable with a double space and then use that value to find all entries in a log file:

num_day="8"
C_HOUR="13"
C_DATE='Wed Dec 8'
C_DATE="`echo $C_DATE | /bin/sed -e 's/'${num_day}'/ '${num_day}'/'`"
# replaces day number with double spaces i.e.Wed Dec 8 with # Wed Dec 8

# write all lines beginning from ${C_DATE} in
# alert_TEST.log to errors.dat file
sed -n "/^${C_DATE} $C_HOUR.*1999/,$ p" alert_TEST.log > errors.dat

the variable C_DATE used outside of " " removes multiple spaces.

any help would be very much appreciated.
thanks.
ed.

 

[futurelet]

[tt]
awk -v d="${C_DATE} $C_HOUR" -v y=1999 '
BEGIN{$0=d; $3=sprintf("%2d",$3); d=$0}
$0 ~ d ".*" y, 0
' alert_TEST.log > errors.dat
[/tt]

 

[edwardb15]

thanks for the help