I have a file fruits:
ap ple
ora nge
pe ar
gra pes
bro ccoli
tom ato
ap ache
I'd like to make an awk script to check how many fruits are there in the file.
I have tried
awk -F: '/ap|ora|pe|gra ple|nge|ar|pes/ {sum+=1} END {print sum+0}' fruits
and it should return 4, since 4 of their pairs are exact match, but they're returning 5 I think due to ap ache. Does the space not register in this case?
The regular expression ap|ora|pe|gra ple|nge|ar|pes matches
ap or ora or pe or gra ple or nge or ar or pes
You need to add some grouping to match two separate alternates with space inbetween:
$ awk '/(ap|ora|pe|gra) (ple|nge|ar|pes)/' fruits
ap ple
ora nge
pe ar
gra pes
$ awk '/(ap|ora|pe|gra) (ple|nge|ar|pes)/ {sum+=1} END{print sum}' fruits
4
Note that you don't need to set -F to a non-whitespace value since /pattern/ matches the whole record by default.
$1 ~ /^(ap|ora|pe|gra)$/ && $2 ~ /^(ple|nge|ar|pes)$/ (with or without ^$. But that would also match graple and apar etc... So maybe something like $1 $2 ~ /^(apple|orange|pear|grapes)$/ ???
ap ar or ora pes or gra ple or many other pairs which are not fruits.
awk '/^(ap ?ple|ora ?nge|pe ?ar|gra ?pes) ?$/{c++}END{print c}'.`