how to search "." in a string using grep command

Question

I have some string which include "." as part of it example

VCAT.VSCH.VIVEK 
VIVEK

I want to grep the sting which include ".vivek". i tried using grep -iw ".vivek" but it return no data. please help me finding the string.

Thanks in advance Vivek

If an input line was foo.bar.vivekski - should the grep output that line or not? — Ed Morton, Commented Jul 6, 2019 at 17:29

Wiktor Stribiżew · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-05 10:04:05Z

1

You should remove w and use

s="VCAT.VSCH.VIVEK 
VIVEK"
grep -i '\.vivek' <<< "$s"
# => VCAT.VSCH.VIVEK

Or, with a word boundary at the end to match vivek and not viveks:

grep -i '\.vivek\b' <<< "$s"

answered Jul 5, 2019 at 10:02

Wiktor Stribiżew

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One more question. If i only want to look for "." than what should i use
– Vivek Gaur
Commented Jul 5, 2019 at 10:07
@VivekGaur a dot should be escaped, see my answer.
– Wiktor Stribiżew
Commented Jul 5, 2019 at 10:08
@VivekGaur If you mean a dot that is enclosed with spaces, use grep -E '(^|[[:space:]])\.($|[[:space:]])'
– Wiktor Stribiżew
Commented Jul 6, 2019 at 23:11

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