How do I use grep to search for lines containing all words in a list with no specific order in a text file? [duplicate]

This question already has an answer here:

How can we use grep to get line(s) containing a group of words, while the order of words is not important, although line(s) should contain all words mentioned in search?

grep

I have done that with phasing the search (with piping, saving the outputs in temporary files, and searching again), but I'd like to know if I can do that in one attempt.

Here is a sample; I want to search in the lines below for lines containing sample, words, list:

it's a sample test file for a list of words.
list of words without a specific order, it's a sample.
line with no search keyword here.
list the sample files.
something completely different.


And get this result:

it's a sample test file for a list of words.
list of words without a specific order, it's a sample.


This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.

grep -e words -e sample -e list newfile

awk

awk '(/sample/ && /words/ && /list/)' samplefile

2 Answers
2

The easy way is with multiple calls to grep:

grep

grep sample testfile.txt | grep words | grep list


A demonstration:

echo -e "it's a sample test file for a list of words.nlist of words without a specific order, it's a sample. nline with no search keyword here. nlist the sample words. nsomething completely different." | grep sample | grep words | grep list
it's a sample test file for a list of words.
list of words without a specific order, it's a sample.
list the sample words.


You can use lookaheads with Perl-regex (-P):

-P

grep -P '(?=.*list)(?=.*words)(?=.*sample)'


Example:

echo "it's a sample test file for a list of words.
list of words without a specific order, it's a sample.
line with no search keyword here.
list the sample words.
sample line with only two of the keywords inside.
something completely different."
| grep -P '(?=.*list)(?=.*words)(?=.*sample)'

it's a sample test file for a list of words.
list of words without a specific order, it's a sample.
list the sample words.


(via)

With agrep (sudo apt install agrep) you can chain multiple patterns:

agrep

sudo apt install agrep

agrep "sample;words;list"


(via)