sed search a range and print first set

Question

I have a file like as follows

myname
_       something
_       something
_       something
myname
_       something
_       something
myname
_       something
and it follows and no standard other than myname word.

Now I want to print the first set of search from myname to till myname found as below.

myname
_       something
_       something
_

I tried using the following but it is not working.

sed -n -e '/myname/,/myname/ p' file

It prints all the sets.

Tried this also but not worked.

sed -n '/myname/,$ p;/myname/q'

jaypal singh · Answer 1 · 2014-03-09T03:28:34.403

3

Here is another way with awk:

awk '/myname/{++c}c<2' file

$ cat file
myname
_       something
_       something
_       something
myname
_       something
_       something
myname
_       something

$ awk '/myname/{++c}c<2' file
myname
_       something
_       something
_       something

If you file is too big then:

awk '/myname/{++c}c==2{exit}1' file

edited Mar 09 '14 at 03:28

answered Mar 09 '14 at 03:15

jaypal singh

71,025
22
98
142

@SriharshaKalluru You're welcome. Make sure you read this [answer](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18407890/explain-awk-command/18409469#18409469). It contains many valuable gems! – jaypal singh Mar 09 '14 at 03:51

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 09 '14 at 03:09

awk  '/myname/{if(b) exit; else b=1}1' filename



$ cat temp.txt
myname
_       something
_       something
_       something
myname
_       something
_       something
myname
_       something

$ awk  '/myname/{if(b) exit; else b=1}1' temp.txt
myname
_       something
_       something
_       something

potong · Answer 3 · 2017-01-25T14:33:27.347

1

This might work for you (GNU sed):

sed '/myname/{:a;n;//Q;$!ba}' file

Look for the pattern myname then set up a loop that, prints the current line, quits (but does not print) if the new current line contains the above pattern or loops.

An alternative, using the grep-like option -n:

sed -n '/myname/{:a;p;n;//q;ba}' file

edited Jan 25 '17 at 14:33

answered Mar 09 '14 at 17:15

potong

51,370
6
49
80

@ potong: this solution looks a good sed option , can you please elaborate how this command is working ? and what does //Q signify in between . – Vicky Jan 25 '17 at 13:42
@protong: From what I understand by //Q is an empty search expression with a 'quit' flag. Is it like when you pass an empty search expression it uses the last used search expression ( which is myname in this example ) ? as I used this sed '/myname/{:a;n;/myname/Q;$!ba}' and it also looks to be working the same way. – Vicky Jan 26 '17 at 02:10
1

@user3369871 [correct](https://www.gnu.org/software/sed/manual/sed.html#Regexp-Addresses) – potong Jan 26 '17 at 11:06

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 10 '14 at 00:50

0

Here is a Bash solution.

n=0
while read line; do
    [[ $line == myname ]] && ((n++))
    [ $n -gt 1 ] && break
    echo $line
done < file

answered Mar 10 '14 at 00:50

John B

3,466
1
14
20

sed search a range and print first set

4 Answers4

Linked