[SOLVED] compare with one of the 5 options

Issue

I am trying to find words where second or third character is one of "aeiou".

# cat t.txt
test
platform
axis
welcome
option

I tried this but the word "platform" and "axis" is missing in the output.

# awk 'substr($0,2,1) == "e" {print $0}' t.txt
test
welcome

Solution

You may use this awk solution that matches 1 or 2 of any char followed by one of the vowels:

awk '/^.{1,2}[aeiou]/' file

test
platform
axis
welcome

Or else use substr function to get a substring of 2nd and 3rd char and then compare with one of the vowels:

awk 'substr($0,2,2) ~ /[aeiou]/ ' file

test
platform
axis
welcome

---

As per comment below OP wants to get string without vowels in 2nd or 3rd position, Here is a solution for that:

awk '{
s=substr($0,2,2)
gsub(/[aeiou]+/, "", s)
print substr($0,1,1) s substr($0, 4)
}' file

tst
pltform
axs
wlcome
option

PS: This sed would be shorter for replacement:

sed -E 's/^(.[^aeiou]{0,1})[aeiou]{1,2}/\1/' file

Answered By - anubhava

Answer Checked By - Marie Seifert (WPSolving Admin)