1 a b c
2 d e f
3 g h i

I have the above configuration file. What I need is when I enter a letter (between a to i ) script should return the corresponding line no. or digit that assigned to the line. For eg. if I enter letter 'e', I should get 2.
let me know if have the answer.
thanks.

1 a b c
2 d e f
3 g h i

So you have a file that stores the pattern above and you want to type e on the command line and then have the number two sent to your screen?

Exactly! if my shell file name is myShell.ksh then command would be
myShell.ksh e confg.txt

thanks

I guess I found it myself I didnt realise it was so easy
grep $inputChar $cfgfile | cut -c1
any better suggestion?

What I need is when I enter a letter (between a to i ) script should return the corresponding line no

grep -n <pattern> <filename> |cut -d ":" -f1

Jc

The problem in the above is if the file is of the format

1 a w e
2 s d g
...
...
..
9 w d f
10 a w e

If you execute it will return 1 and 1 but not 1 and 10

Rather than using cut use awk '{print $1}' so it becomes

grep <patern> <file> | awk '{print $1}'

or even...

awk '$3==var {print $1}' var=e configFile

Guys,
Thank you very much for your solutions.