Alias grep "$1" filename doesn't work, somehow "$1" went missing

Question

Normal grep

wolf@linux:~$ egrep 4.4.4.4 data.csv 
A,4.4.4.4,4.4.4.5,4.4.4.6,3.3.3.3,3.3.3.4
wolf@linux:~$

Since I've a lot of data to grep, I've put it on alias.

wolf@linux:~$ alias z="egrep $1 data.csv"
wolf@linux:~$

But it doesn't work

wolf@linux:~$ z 4.4.4.4
grep: 4.4.4.4: No such file or directory
wolf@linux:~$

It turns out that $1 was missing from the alias.

wolf@linux:~$ alias z
alias z='egrep  data.csv'
wolf@linux:~$

What was the reason behind this?

Does this answer your question? Single or Double quotes when defining an alias? — muru, Oct 21 '20 at 04:13
And https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/3773/how-to-pass-parameters-to-an-alias - what you want can't be done with an alias. Use a function — muru, Oct 21 '20 at 04:13
Does this answer your question? How to pass parameters to an alias? — AdminBee, Oct 21 '20 at 11:39

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 21 '20 at 05:03

Try a function instead of alias

z() { egrep -- "$1" data.csv; }

Output

$ z() { egrep -- "$1" data.csv; }
$ z 3.3.3.3
A,4.4.4.4,4.4.4.5,4.4.4.6,3.3.3.3,3.3.3.4
B,1.1.1.1,1.1.1.1,1.1.1.2,1.1.1.3,3.3.3.3
$

1 Answers1