grep only first match code example

Example 1: bash grep only return first match

# Basic syntax:
grep -m 1 "pattern" input_file.txt
# Where -m is the maximum number of matching lines to return, i.e. stop
#	reading the file after m matches
# Note, this is more efficient than piping to head because there you
#	always read the whole file even if you're only looking for m matches

Example 2: grep first occurence for many matches

Just use flag -m to define number of occurrences to match:
grep -m1 pattern file

Example 3: grep third match

#Combine grep and tail for grepping until second match and filtering 
#last with tail command
grep -m2 "two" in-file.txt | tail -n1

Example 4: grep first match

Just combine grep with head command for filtering  only the first match as:
grep "match" | head -n 1   #Change 1 to not only match first but further matches