I have data file, of following type ... //some data..4-5 lines varies COUNT -DATA-// (some numbers) //some data...again ... this pattern repeats. I want to extract -DATA- from this file, which always comes after line containing string COUNT, -DATA- will be numaric values. Can you please tell me how can I do this using scripts.

If I am reading this correctly, you just need lines containing the word -DATA- Why not use: grep "-DATA-" filename

It's not like that.. I had written -DATA- to indecate that data I am looking for comes their, that is actually a numaric value. This value comes after line containing COUNT .. sample data file looks like as follows.. //........ No. of lines of code I have done and other documents COUNT 100 No. of files reviewed by me COUNT 4 Errors found while reviewing COUNT 7 ...... .... Here I want to extract 100 4 7

grep -A1 COUNT filename | grep -v COUNT

looks like -A1 is not one of the option of grep Getting error.. illegal option -- - illegal option -- A illegal option -- 1 Usage: grep -hblcnsviw pattern file ...

To print each line that follows lines that begin with COUNT: sed -n '/^COUNT/{n;p;}' myfile

Thanks you very much, this is working.