In the process of writing a script which I would like to count the  
number matched patterns (command line parameters).

The issue I am running into using grep is that the string has a dash  
in front, and it throws an error.

E.g:

./script -test

PATTERN=$1

egrep -ic $PATTERN --> egrep: invalid option -- 't'

awk and egrep work using a file, but not on a variable:

EXAMPLE=`awk '/test/ { nlines++ } {print nlines}' $PATTERN`

awk: cmd. line:1: fatal: cannot open file `-test' for reading (No such  
file or directory)

I know using and if command works, so am I just over doing it? What am  
I doing wrong?

if [[ $PATTERN == "-test" ]; then

Thanks in advanced!

Saul David Alanis