Diff for "BashFAQ/011"

Differences between revisions 1 and 27 (spanning 26 versions)

How can I print the n'th line of a file?

One dirty (but not quick) way is:

    sed -n ${n}p "$file"

But this reads the entire file even if only the third line is desired, which can be avoided by printing line $n using the "p" command, followed by a "q" to exit the script:

    sed -n "$n{p;q;}" "$file"

Another method is to grab the last line from a listing of the first n lines:

   head -n $n $file | tail -n 1

Another approach, using AWK:

   awk "NR==$n{print;exit}" file

If more than one line is needed, it's easy to adapt any of the previous methods:

   x=3 y=4
   sed -n "$x,${y}p;${y}q;" "$file"                # Print lines $x to $y; quit after $y.
   head -n $y "$file" | tail -n $((y - x + 1))     # Same
   head -n $y "$file" | tail -n +$x                # If your tail supports it
   awk "NR>=$x{print} NR==$y{exit}" "$file"        # Same

In Bash 4, a pure-bash solution can be achieved succinctly using the mapfile builtin. More than one line can be read into the array MAPFILE by adjusting the argument to mapfile's -n option:

   mapfile -ts $((n-1)) -n 1 < "$file"
   echo "${MAPFILE[0]}"

mapfile can also be used similarly to head while avoiding buffering issues in the event input is a pipe:

   { mapfile -n $n; head -n 1; } <"$file"

-  ⇤ ← Revision 1 as of 2007-05-02 22:55:48 → 
  Size: 620
  Editor: redondos
  Comment:
+   ← Revision 27 as of 2012-02-27 02:27:07 → ⇥
  Size: 1538
  Editor: ormaaj
  Comment: Agree with Lhunath - rm useless note. Fix writing style.
-Deletions are marked like this.
+Additions are marked like this.
 Line 1:
-[[Anchor(faq11)]]
+<<Anchor(faq11)>>
 Line 3:
-The dirty (but not quick) way would be {{{sed -n ${n}p "$file"}}} but this reads the whole input file, even if you only wanted the third line.
+One dirty (but not quick) way is:
 Line 5:
-The following {{{sed}}} command line reads a file printing nothing (-n). At line $n the command "p" is run, printing it, with a "q" afterwards: quit the program.
+{{{
    sed -n ${n}p "$file"
}}}
But this reads the entire file even if only the third line is desired, which can be avoided by printing line {{{$n}}} using the "p" command, followed by a "q" to exit the script:
-Line 10:
+Line 13:
+Another method is to grab the last line from a listing of the first {{{n}}} lines:
-Line 11:
+Line 15:
-Another way, more obvious to some, is to grab the last line from a listing of the first n lines:
-Line 13:
+Line 16:
-   head -n $n $file | tail -n 1
+   head -n $n $file | tail -n 1
}}}
Another approach, using [[AWK]]:

{{{
   awk "NR==$n{print;exit}" file
}}}
If more than one line is needed, it's easy to adapt any of the previous methods:

{{{
   x=3 y=4
   sed -n "$x,${y}p;${y}q;" "$file"                # Print lines $x to $y; quit after $y.
   head -n $y "$file" | tail -n $((y - x + 1))     # Same
   head -n $y "$file" | tail -n +$x                # If your tail supports it
   awk "NR>=$x{print} NR==$y{exit}" "$file"        # Same
}}}
In Bash 4, a pure-bash solution can be achieved succinctly using the {{{mapfile}}} builtin. More than one line can be read into the array {{{MAPFILE}}} by adjusting the argument to mapfile's -n option:

{{{
   mapfile -ts $((n-1)) -n 1 < "$file"
   echo "${MAPFILE[0]}"
}}}
{{{mapfile}}} can also be used similarly to {{{head}}} while avoiding buffering issues in the event input is a pipe:

{{{
   { mapfile -n $n; head -n 1; } <"$file"
-Line 16:
+Line 44:
-Using awk:
{{{
   awk 'NR==n{print;exit}' file
}}}
+=== See Also ===
 * [[BashFAQ/001]]
 * http://wiki.bash-hackers.org/commands/builtin/mapfile
----
CategoryShell