Only allow hexadecimal regex

Question

I want a regex using the grep command which only prints out the hexadecimal-notated strings.

This is my command:

grep "0x[A-Fa-f0-9]{1,6}" test.txt

test.txt:

0x2a
0xF
0x1111
0x0ZZZ
0x4dz5

Expected output:

0x2a
0xF
0x1111

Output: Empty

How to do this? Thanks

Do you require the hex string to be by itself on a line? Or separated from surrounding characters by ... a space? Non-hex char? — Jeff Schaller, Oct 12 '17 at 17:43
@JeffSchaller All strings will be on a separate line anyway, so nothing special for that needed. — O'Niel, Oct 12 '17 at 17:44

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 12 '17 at 17:49

The {n,m} syntax is part of the Extended Regular Expression set, which means that you need to enable that in grep with the -E flag. To require that the full line matches the hex representation, add the -x flag (or use the ^ and $ anchors):

grep -Ex '0x[A-Fa-f0-9]{1,6}'

or

grep -E '^0x[A-Fa-f0-9]{1,6}$'

I also changed the surrounding quotes from double- to single-, to prevent unintended expansion of the $ character.

Only allow hexadecimal regex

1 Answers1