parse first column of command output, get corresponding second column value

Question

I am executing a command that outputs a table, as such:

firstValue:   a
secondValue:  b.y7
thirdValue:   c-x-g 10:42 GMT

Say I need the secondValue. I can't do this by row number, because sometimes the output could look like this:

firstValue:    a
surprisevalue: d
secondValue:   b.y7
thirdValue:    c-x-g 10:42 GMT

How can I do this by finding a certain string ("secondValue") in the first column, and returning the corresponding string in the second column?

Michael Mrozek · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-08 16:18:10Z

3

Pipe the command through awk; tell it to search for a line that starts with secondValue and output the second field in that line:

$ command-that-outputs-the-table | awk '/^secondValue:/ {print $2}'

answered Jul 8, 2015 at 16:18

Michael Mrozek

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