I need to extract data from a flat file with a package name(ABC.XYZ.W)with other packages too. Eg. | 12345678| 993600| ABHUY | WIGB | 98765432| 995640| DSGFKDSJGS | R003 #EOD * * # 4 COUNTRIES'WEIGHT DNCA.CTY.W 20070131 # 1 Calculation Date calc_date D 8 0 # 2 MSCI Index Code msci_index_code N 6 0 # 3 ISO Country Symbol ISO_country_symbol S 3 0 # 4 Country Weight country_weight N 8 4 * # 1 2 3 4 SSL>>>>>>>SSV>>>>>SSL>>SSV>>>>>>> | 20123131| 106330| AU | 3.1398 | 20050131| 106330| CA | 4.1201 | 26701315| 106330| CH | 3.9537 | 20078931| 106330| DK | 0.4766 | 20056131| 106330| GB | 13.3372 The main file calls a txt file with using awk commands to extract the data through the command. awk -f "./awk_dnca.txt" $MSCI_DATA_DIR/$FILE_2 > "./file_ABC.dat". I am trying to get the line number where the text WEIGHT is searched and take all subsequent line numbers. The code I am using is lineno= grep -n WEIGHT $4 echo $lineno BEGIN{ FS="|" } /^\|/ {if ( NF == 4 && $lineno > NR) print $2"|"$3"|"$4}