[SOLVED] Shell: selecting matching text between two strings on different lines

Issue

I want to be able to select all text between two strings that are found on two lines. A few complicating specifics:

• One of these strings is simple text (e.g., "match me")
• One of these strings is the docstring symbol (""")
• These two strings will not be found at the start of the line (if you count whitespace)

E.g.,

      match me: XXXXX
         I want this
         I want this
         I want this
     """

I would ideally like to

1. get the text between the two strings,
2. remove the whitespace and
3. remove the strings themselves

E.g., ideal output:

I want this
I want this
I want this

Any guidance on how to do this would be greatly appreciated.

I have tried a variety of solutions using awk and sed but have been unable to match only the text meeting all of the above conditions.

Solution

Using any POSIX awk:

$ awk '{sub(/^[[:space:]]+/,"")} f{if (/^"""/) f=0; else print} /^match me/{f=1}' file
I want this
I want this
I want this

I'm guessing at some of your requirements, see my comment. If there's only 1 such block in your input you could change f=0 to exit for improved efficiency.

Answered By - Ed Morton

Answer Checked By - Robin (WPSolving Admin)