Windows command equivalent of egrep

Question

Can I run this in a Windows command prompt like I can run it in UNIX?

egrep -wi 'FRIENDS|FOES' *.sql

This command is intended to scan each SQL file for the whole keywords "Friends" and "Foes," ignoring case.

Expressage

Have you looked at the findstr command? technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490907.aspx – Kinesthesia

Why is this question downvoted? Windows CLI is missing some features that us Linux refuges take for granted. – Apiarist

Answer 1

I think the findstr command is a fair enough substitute Windows command in place of Linux.

Expressage

Answer 2

Well you can have cygwin on Windows so then you have bash, grep, etc.

If you need only grep, then there is GnuWin32.

If you don't want to install anything and is on Win XP, try findstr, although it can't do "orring".

If you are on Win-7, then there is powershell, with select-string.

Chemistry

Answer 3

The Windows equivalent would be the FIND command:

C:\>find /?
Searches for a text string in a file or files.

FIND [/V] [/C] [/N] [/I] [/OFF[LINE]] "string" [[drive:][path]filename[ ...]]

  /V         Displays all lines NOT containing the specified string.
  /C         Displays only the count of lines containing the string.
  /N         Displays line numbers with the displayed lines.
  /I         Ignores the case of characters when searching for the string.
  /OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set.
  "string"   Specifies the text string to find.
  [drive:][path]filename
             Specifies a file or files to search.

If a path is not specified, FIND searches the text typed at the prompt
or piped from another command.

But you can also download most of the unix utilities (incl. grep) from http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/ (just drop them into your PATH and use them).

Eastern

Answer 4

Depends on your system. Do you have some version of grep installed? Windows has no equvalent of grep out of the box, but you can install Cygwin / GnuWin or unxutils.sourceforge.net.

Susan

Answer 5

I´m not sure about the OR condition, but the basic feature should look like

type *.sql | find /n "FRIENDS"

Truism

Answer 6

Here is a equivalent to egrep "string1|string2|string3":

PS: C:> findstr /C:string1 /C:string2 /C:string3

Sussi

Answer 7

here it is

findstr /I /C:FRIENDS /C:FOES *.sql

Searches for strings in files.

FINDSTR [/B] [/E] [/L] [/R] [/S] [/I] [/X] [/V] [/N] [/M] [/O] [/P] [/F:file]
        [/C:string] [/G:file] [/D:dir list] [/A:color attributes] [/OFF[LINE]]
        strings [[drive:][path]filename[ ...]]

  /B         Matches pattern if at the beginning of a line.
  /E         Matches pattern if at the end of a line.
  /L         Uses search strings literally.
  /R         Uses search strings as regular expressions.
  /S         Searches for matching files in the current directory and all
             subdirectories.
  /I         Specifies that the search is not to be case-sensitive.
  /X         Prints lines that match exactly.
  /V         Prints only lines that do not contain a match.
  /N         Prints the line number before each line that matches.
  /M         Prints only the filename if a file contains a match.
  /O         Prints character offset before each matching line.
  /P         Skip files with non-printable characters.
  /OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set.
  /A:attr    Specifies color attribute with two hex digits. See "color /?"
  /F:file    Reads file list from the specified file(/ stands for console).
  /C:string  Uses specified string as a literal search string.
  /G:file    Gets search strings from the specified file(/ stands for console).
  /D:dir     Search a semicolon delimited list of directories
  strings    Text to be searched for.
  [drive:][path]filename
             Specifies a file or files to search.

Use spaces to separate multiple search strings unless the argument is prefixed
with /C.  For example, 'FINDSTR "hello there" x.y' searches for "hello" or
"there" in file x.y.  'FINDSTR /C:"hello there" x.y' searches for
"hello there" in file x.y.

Regular expression quick reference:
  .        Wildcard: any character
  *        Repeat: zero or more occurrences of previous character or class
  ^        Line position: beginning of line
  $        Line position: end of line
  [class]  Character class: any one character in set
  [^class] Inverse class: any one character not in set
  [x-y]    Range: any characters within the specified range
  \x       Escape: literal use of metacharacter x
  \<xyz    Word position: beginning of word
  xyz\>    Word position: end of word
For full information on FINDSTR regular expressions refer to the online Command
Reference.

Paramatta