Printing lines from a file where a specific field is matched

Question

Hi,

I have many lines of form: A:B:C

I want to print those lines(complete) where the 3rd field (fields separated by :) contain a certain pattern.

Example:

new/old:california/new york:/ms/dist/fx/PROJ/fx/startScript

new/old:startScript/new york:/ms/dist/fx/PROJ/fx/stopScript

When searching for pattern startScript, the 1st line should be printed and not the 2nd one.

Thanks,

Jagrati

Answer 1

The general solution is to use awk but it is worth noting that in your specific example there is a much simpler solution - you can just use grep:

grep 'startScript$' yourfile

Answer 2

Separate on colon, then check third field:

awk -F : '$3 ~ /startScript/ { print }'

Answer 3

awk -F":" '$3~/startScript$/' file