Using regex with grep

Question

One of my homework questions is to search using grep an lines that contain the word 'death' or 'breath'.

I know the [] operator acts as an or, but how do I use it to specify 'd' or 'br' ?

This won't work:

egrep [dbr]eath test_file

wkl · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-12 00:14:36Z

2

(d|br) is for either d or br.

The square brackets are for matching a single character from square brackets.

For example: [asdf]ello would match aello, sello, dello, or fello.

answered Oct 12, 2010 at 0:14

wkl

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Paul Tomblin · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-12 00:14:26Z

1

egrep '(d|br)eath' test_file

answered Oct 12, 2010 at 0:14

Paul Tomblin

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Pointy · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-12 00:14:07Z

1

The "|" operator (vertical bar) acts as an "or". However:

grep 'breath|death' test_file

What you wrote would find "death", "beath", and "reath".

answered Oct 12, 2010 at 0:14

Pointy

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LVB · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-12 00:14:34Z

0

Study up on "alternation" and you'll figure it out.

answered Oct 12, 2010 at 0:14

LVB

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ghostdog74 · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-12 00:24:20Z

0

egrep is FYI, deprecated. Use grep -E

grep -E '(d|br)eath' file

answered Oct 12, 2010 at 0:24

ghostdog74

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