Hi,
I have a file with multiple records...and I have to select records based on first column....here is the sample file...
I01,abc,125,1a2,LBVI02
I01,abc,126,2b5,LBVI02
I02,20070530,254,abc,LLBI01
I02,20070820,111,bvd,NGBI01
I need all records with I01 in first field in one file and all records with I02 in one file...
egrep '^I01' input_file > I01_File
egrep '^I02' input_file > I02_File
awk -F, '{file=$1 "_file"; print > file; close (file)}' input_file
awk -F"," '{ print > $1 }' inputfile
Why do you need egrep when only a single pattern is specified in the regex ? 
This won't work. It will print all matching records to the file with the same name as $1, the OP wanted the newest record only, which judging by the sample input is the first occurrence only.
Matrixmadhan,
Thanks for verifying my solution.
You are right about it -- for this specific case, I don't really need 'egrep'.
Matrix, I have a habit of always use 'egrep' no matter what.
This comes from the fact that I have had problems trying to use some full
regular expressions with 'grep' -- I had to specify the '-E' option.
Sometimes I found that out after a long headache.
From my last disaster, I promise myself to never use 'grep' again, always 'egrep'.
Matrix, also to reinforce my idea, all three versions of 'grep' in my system all have the same hardlink:
>ls -li grep egrep fgrep
329785 -r-xr-xr-x 7 root bin 22.1K Apr 12 09:11 egrep
329785 -r-xr-xr-x 7 root bin 22.1K Apr 12 09:11 fgrep
329785 -r-xr-xr-x 7 root bin 22.1K Apr 12 09:11 grep
Which leads me to believe that they are all the same program.
Hope to have answered your question.
Cheers.
No, this is not correct.
This is what OP had asked for and the solution I had provided would work.
2 records in the file I01 and 2 records in the file I02.
Why do you think it won't work ?
Sorry guys, you're both right. I got confused between two browser windows I has open and though I was looking at this thread