Just want to exclude lines with tabs

[xyz2041]

Hi,

I just want to exclude lines that have tabs on them.

I've tried all of these, but none work.

What am I missing?


grep "$(echo -e \\t)" o.csv
grep "$(printf '\t')" o.csv
grep "\t" o.csv > o-out.csv
grep $',' o.csv > o-out.csv
grep $'\t' o.csv > o-out.csv
grep -P "\t" o.csv > o-out.csv
grep -r ',' o.csv
grep -v "[[:tab:]]" o.csv > o-out.csv
grep -v "\t" o.csv > o-out.csv
grep -v "\t" o.csv > o-out.csv
grep -v $"\t" o.csv > o-out.csv
grep -v $'\t' o.csv > o-out.csv
grep -v '[ \t]' o.csv > o-out.csv
grep -v \t o.csv > o-out.csv
grep -v '\t' o.csv > o-out.csv
grep -v -e "\t" o.csv > o-out.csv
grep -v- -e "\t" o.csv > o-out.csv
grep -v -e '\t' o.csv > o-out.csv
grep -w ',' o.csv > o-out.csv

[Eric Blake]

Post by xyz2041
Hi,
I just want to exclude lines that have tabs on them.
I've tried all of these, but none work.
What am I missing?

Grep doesn't interpret \t as a valid escape sequence. This works:

$ printf 'a a\nb\tb\nc c\n' | grep -v $'\t'
a a
c c

if your shell is new enough to have $'' support; otherwise, type a
literal tab in your shell window (often by 'ctrl-v tab' or 'ctrl-v
ctrl-i'), and be sure you properly quote it.

[John Cowan]

Post by xyz2041
What am I missing?

That grep and similar Posix utilities do not understand \t. Instead,
use \011 (the octal code for tab):

$ grep -v '\011' o.csv > o-out.csv

You need to put the \011 in single quotes, otherwise the shell will interpret
the \0 sequence as equivalent to simple 0.

[Paul Eggert]

Post by John Cowan
$ grep -v '\011' o.csv > o-out.csv

That doesn't work, as it's treated like grep -v '011'. Eric had the
right solution.

[Karl Berry]

grep "$(printf '\t')" o.csv

It seems to me this should have worked, unless your shell's quoting got
rid of the \ before printf could see it. Certainly this works:

tab=`printf '\t'` # or $(...), whatever
grep "$tab" somefile

This assignment of special characters to shell variables and then using
the variable in subsequent commands is the most portable (across decades
and "improvements" in standards, shells, systems, ...) approach I know
of. FWIW. -k

[xyz2041]

Thanks, everyone.

I just couldn't get Windows command line to let me put a
tab on the line, so I wrote a batch file:

set TAB=
grep -v "%TAB%" %1.%2 > %1-NoTabs.csv
grep -v "," %1.%2 > %1-NoCmas.tab

Just hit the tab key after "set TAB=". Not elegant but it works.

grep version:

K:\>grep -V
grep (GNU grep) 2.5.1

Copyright 1988, 1992-1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

MD5: bb350a9ac2236b3e29f2229e77709f40

Thanks, again!

Post by xyz2041
grep "$(printf '\t')" o.csv
It seems to me this should have worked, unless your shell's quoting got
tab=`printf '\t'` # or $(...), whatever
grep "$tab" somefile
This assignment of special characters to shell variables and then using
the variable in subsequent commands is the most portable (across decades
and "improvements" in standards, shells, systems, ...) approach I know
of. FWIW. -k

[Manuel Collado]

Post by xyz2041
I just couldn't get Windows command line to let me put a
set TAB=
grep -v "%TAB%" %1.%2 > %1-NoTabs.csv
grep -v "," %1.%2 > %1-NoCmas.tab
Just hit the tab key after "set TAB=". Not elegant but it works.

Your solution doesn't work in my Win7 machine. The TAB key is tied to
the "filename expansion" feature of the command line.

If you can type a TAB after "set TAB=" and it really generates a tab
character, the you should be able also to type:

grep -v "<TAB>" ....

where <TAB> is the TAB key.

In my case I have to disable the filename expansion feature by launching
a secondary shell:

C:\Users\mcollado>cmd /F:off
Microsoft Windows [Versión 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. Reservados todos los derechos.

C:\Users\mcollado>grep -v "<TAB>" somefile

And it works.