sed to delete lines using multiple search string

Question

I have a text file, let say test1.txt, I need to remove the line containing dog and date with "29-APR-2015"

Using the below command to accomplish it but it is not deleting the lines.

Where as if i mention just with /DOG/d it is deleting the lines containing DOG.

command file (sedcommands)

/DOG,29-APR-2015/d

test1.txt

DOG          29-APR-2015          
DOG          29-APR-2015          
DOG          30-APR-2015          
CAT          29-APR-2015          
CAT          29-APR-2015

command

sed -f sedcommands test1.txt > test2.txt

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 29 '15 at 14:23

4

With GNU sed:

sed '/DOG/{/29-APR-2015/d}' test1

This method allows for any order. ie. DOG can either be before or after the date.

edited Apr 29 '15 at 14:23

cuonglm

153,898

answered Apr 29 '15 at 03:17

Peter.O

32,916

@cuonglm - sed --posix '/DOG/{/29-APR-2015/d}' works fine in GNU sed version 4.2.1 (with all GNU extensions disabled). – Peter.O Apr 30 '15 at 04:11
@Peter.O: No, POSIX require terminator between the command anh }. At least your command won't work in BSD sed. – cuonglm Apr 30 '15 at 04:28
@Peter.O, GNU sed's --posix is to tell it to be more POSIX conformant. It's not telling it to report an error on any non-POSIX code you throw at it. It would not make GNU sed more POSIX conformant to report an error when you give it that non-standard {xxx} code. – Stéphane Chazelas May 04 '15 at 16:25

cuonglm · Answer 2 · 2015-05-04T17:04:17.643

3

POSIXly:

sed -e '/DOG/!b' -e '/29-APR-2015/!b' -e d file

branch to the end if you don't provide any label.

or:

sed '/DOG/{/29-APR-2015/d
}' file

Modern sed implementations also support {command;} form, this's an accepted extension by POSIX, but not required:

sed '/DOG/{/29-APR-2015/d;}' file

edited May 04 '15 at 17:04

answered Apr 29 '15 at 04:46

cuonglm

153,898

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 29 '15 at 02:41

/DOG,29-APR-2015/d will not work because there is no comma between DOG and 9-APR-2015. Try this;

$ sed -e '/DOG[[:space:]]*29-APR-2015/d' test1.txt 
     DOG          30-APR-2015          
     CAT          29-APR-2015          
     CAT          29-APR-2015

[[:space:]]* allows for zero or more white space characters between DOG and 9-APR-2015. The character class [:space:] allows both ordinary spaces and tabs and is safe to use with unicode fonts.

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 29 '15 at 02:40

1

The command file should contain:

/DOG *29-APR-2015/d

That is, DOG followed by 0 or more spaces, followed by specified date.

answered Apr 29 '15 at 02:40

unxnut

6,008

sed to delete lines using multiple search string

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