using grep for a dummy

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1

Hi there;

I am really new in unix. I need some help regarding use of grep command.

I need to write a shell script which takes a C++ program and counts the
number of words which could be a valid C++ variable name.

I wrote a regular expression to find c++ variable names:

^[_a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*

but it prints just lines. How can apply this command to a word, I mean I want to list the words and count themm.

can anyone help me?

2

always check your man page. man grep to see if there are options that support matching whole words...

3

thanks for your suggestion, I am aware of that there is manual option and I can get information about commands. I didnot ask that there is a man page or not! I asked something about what I want to do.. If you dont know it ot If you dont share your knowladge, u dont have to write.

thanks.

4

This is strictly not encouraged in the forum.

Please do read the rules of the forum.

to grep as a word and not as a pattern match use ' -w ' option of the grep