you have to pass the filenames as arguments to grep:
grep 'pattern' $(locate 'filename')
(the $(...)
will evaluate the command and return it's stdoutput)
Question
locate 'filename' | grep 'pattern'
locates files then greps their file names.
I want to grep the contents of the file instead.
Solution
you have to pass the filenames as arguments to grep:
grep 'pattern' $(locate 'filename')
(the $(...)
will evaluate the command and return it's stdoutput)