Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!dsac.dla.mil!ddtc.dla.mil!marst2!vwa0201 From: vwa0201@marst2 (Larry Baca) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,dla.questions Subject: Attn: AWK GURUS (Generic Search) Message-ID: <354@marst2> Date: 27 Feb 91 19:48:08 GMT Followup-To: comp.unix.questions Organization: Defense Automatic Addressing Systems Office, Dayton Ohio 45444 Lines: 34 I want to do a quick generic search of a rather large data base and I want to do the search based on certain record cols. If I have records that look like this: abc defghi j klmnop qrst uvw x y z a bc defg hij lmnop qrst uvw x yz ab c defg hi j klmn op qrst u vwxyz And say I want to find only the records with (a) in col1, (nop) in col19-21, (v) in col29 and (y) in col34. I want to do this in a script where the record cols and params are left to to the users choice. I tried doing this with: -- -- while true do a=`line