How to use grep for whole word only?

Question

How I can to do full-text search with help grep Unix utility for whole word only? I.e., how I can to use grep Unix utility/command for only whole word full-text search?

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Answer 1

There are 2 ways to find whole words with help grep utility:

1. -w option
2. \b word boundaries in match pattern

Use -w option to specify that it's whole word:

grep -w "str"

Use \b to match on "word boundaries", which will make your search match on whole words only:

grep "\bSTR\b"

Adding additional options might help too by adding color, line numbers, recursive search and other features:

grep -binrw "str" grep -binr "\bSTR\b"