Start learning free

LESSON 381 OF 410 · PROJECTS: COMMAND-LINE TOOLS

CLI Tool: grep v1 — Substring Match in Python

Practice

Build a tiny version of the Unix grep command. Given a list of lines and a search pattern, return all lines that contain pattern as a substring (case-sensitive), joined by newline characters (\n).

Function signature:

def grep(self, lines: List[str], pattern: str) -> str:

Example:

Input:
pattern = "err"
lines = ["error: foo", "warning", "another error", "ok"]

Output: "error: foo\nanother error"

When printed:
error: foo
another error

If no lines match, return the empty string "".

Note: real grep treats the pattern as a regular expression by default (grep -F matches plain text). Here the pattern is always plain text: just look for it literally, so characters such as . or * mean nothing special.


Iterate over the lines, keep the ones where pattern in line is true, then join with "\n".

The full solution:
class Solution:
    def grep(self, lines, pattern):
        result = []
        for line in lines:
            if pattern in line:
                result.append(line)
        return "\n".join(result)

STEP 1 OF 5
    Ctrl + Enter to check

    Grep V1 in Python

    Keep going with PythonAbout 340 step-by-step lessons, from your first line of code to coding interviews. Free to start.
    Start learning free