Get lines between two timestamps from a file

Question

I have this large file that I need to go through using date and time. Every line in this file has a date and time in it.

I need to search through the lines and get the lines that lie between two specific dates and times.

Example file (the field for date and time is $2 and $3):

SERVER 2015-12-12 05:00:20 some_text_here something  
SERVER 2015-11-02 12:22:40 some_text_here something
SERVER 2015-12-11 20:00:00 some_text_here something
SERVER 2015-12-11 23:00:00 some_text_here something
SERVER 2015-12-12 00:30:00 some_text_here something
SERVER 2015-12-12 00:59:00 some_text_here something
SERVER 2015-09-20 03:28:11 some_text_here something
SERVER 2015-04-16 04:49:59 some_text_here something

The command I tried (users have to supply 4 arguments when running the script):

AAA="$1 $2"
BBB="$3 $4"

awk '$2" "$3>="'"$AAA"'" && $2" "$3<="'"$BBB"'"' file.txt > newfile.txt

I am using the lines above as a script but its not working.

newfile.txt should contain (using arguments 2015-12-11 20:00:00 2015-12-12 01:00:00):

SERVER 2015-12-11 20:00:00 some_text_here something
SERVER 2015-12-11 23:00:00 some_text_here something
SERVER 2015-12-12 00:30:00 some_text_here something
SERVER 2015-12-12 00:59:00 some_text_here something

Answer 1

The only real problem is that you assign to $AAA and $BBB instead of AAA and BBB. So if you do (nearly the same as your code):

AAA="2015-12-11 20:00:00"
BBB="2015-12-12 01:00:00"
awk '$2" "$3>="'"$AAA"'" && $2" "$3<="'"$BBB"'"' file.txt > newfile.txt

it should already work. But I recommend the following further changes in order to reduce potentioal quoting problems (especially if you happen to reuse this apprach somewhere else or put special chars in AAA or BBB):

AAA="2015-12-11 20:00:00"
BBB="2015-12-12 01:00:00"
awk -v string1="$AAA" -v string2="$BBB" '$2" "$3>=string1 && $2" "$3<=string2' file.txt > newfile.txt

You can read about -v in the man page of awk.

Answer 2

Maybe you need a script that you can input the two specific dates and times.

Code:

#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -ne 4 ];then
exit 0
fi
AAA=$1" "$2
BBB=$3" "$4
awk -v begintime="${AAA}" -v endtime="${BBB}" '$2" "$3>=begintime && $2" "$3<=endtime' exa > newfile.txt

Answer 3

awk is not the best tool.

sed -e  "/^$AAA/,/^$BBB/,p" file.txt

and man sed.