Replace dot, exclamation and ask sign with sed in Linux - linux

I'm trying to use this code
sed "s/\!{2,}/\!/g" "s/\?{2,}/\?/g" "s/\.{2,}/\./g" file.txt
It almost work, but it doesn't replace the dot
-The input would be like
Hello!!! How are you?? .....
-And the output should be
Hello! How are you?.

$ echo "Hello!!! How are you?? ....." | sed -r 's/\.+/./g; s/\?+/?/g; s/!+/!/g'
Hello! How are you? .

add backslashes before the curly braces { and }
sed uses posix basic regular expressions, whose syntax require a backslash before braces (and grouping parentheses) to give them special meaning.
Otherwise it matches the literal characters { and }
echo -n foo | sed -e 's/o\{2,\}/o/g'

my answer might be a little "off tag", using tr seems the shortest route here
tr -s '?.!'
using tr with a file
tr -s '?.!' < '/root/Desktop/test'
An example with echo
echo 'hello!!! my name is John...how are you??'| tr -s '?.!'
output
hello! my name is John.how are you?

# posix
sed 's/\([.?!]\)\1\{1,\}/\1/g' file.txt
# GNU
sed 's/\([.?!]\)\1+/\1/g' file.txt
use maybe class for 1 action for all at once

Related

Not able to replace the file contents with sed command [duplicate]

I am using the below code for replacing a string
inside a shell script.
echo $LINE | sed -e 's/12345678/"$replace"/g'
but it's getting replaced with $replace instead of the value of that variable.
Could anybody tell what went wrong?
If you want to interpret $replace, you should not use single quotes since they prevent variable substitution.
Try:
echo $LINE | sed -e "s/12345678/${replace}/g"
Transcript:
pax> export replace=987654321
pax> echo X123456789X | sed "s/123456789/${replace}/"
X987654321X
pax> _
Just be careful to ensure that ${replace} doesn't have any characters of significance to sed (like / for instance) since it will cause confusion unless escaped. But if, as you say, you're replacing one number with another, that shouldn't be a problem.
you can use the shell (bash/ksh).
$ var="12345678abc"
$ replace="test"
$ echo ${var//12345678/$replace}
testabc
Not specific to the question, but for folks who need the same kind of functionality expanded for clarity from previous answers:
# create some variables
str="someFileName.foo"
find=".foo"
replace=".bar"
# notice the the str isn't prefixed with $
# this is just how this feature works :/
result=${str//$find/$replace}
echo $result
# result is: someFileName.bar
str="someFileName.sally"
find=".foo"
replace=".bar"
result=${str//$find/$replace}
echo $result
# result is: someFileName.sally because ".foo" was not found
Found a graceful solution.
echo ${LINE//12345678/$replace}
Single quotes are very strong. Once inside, there's nothing you can do to invoke variable substitution, until you leave. Use double quotes instead:
echo $LINE | sed -e "s/12345678/$replace/g"
Let me give you two examples.
Using sed:
#!/bin/bash
LINE="12345678HI"
replace="Hello"
echo $LINE | sed -e "s/12345678/$replace/g"
Without Using sed:
LINE="12345678HI"
str_to_replace="12345678"
replace_str="Hello"
result=${str//$str_to_replace/$replace_str}
echo $result
Hope you will find it helpful!
echo $LINE | sed -e 's/12345678/'$replace'/g'
you can still use single quotes, but you have to "open" them when you want the variable expanded at the right place. otherwise the string is taken "literally" (as #paxdiablo correctly stated, his answer is correct as well)
To let your shell expand the variable, you need to use double-quotes like
sed -i "s#12345678#$replace#g" file.txt
This will break if $replace contain special sed characters (#, \). But you can preprocess $replace to quote them:
replace_quoted=$(printf '%s' "$replace" | sed 's/[#\]/\\\0/g')
sed -i "s#12345678#$replace_quoted#g" file.txt
I had a similar requirement to this but my replace var contained an ampersand. Escaping the ampersand like this solved my problem:
replace="salt & pepper"
echo "pass the salt" | sed "s/salt/${replace/&/\&}/g"
use # if you want to replace things like /. $ etc.
result=$(echo $str | sed "s#$oldstr#$newstr#g")
the above code will replace all occurrences of the specified replacement term
if you want, remove the ending g which means that the only first occurrence will be replaced.
Use this instead
echo $LINE | sed -e 's/12345678/$replace/g'
this works for me just simply remove the quotes
I prefer to use double quotes , as single quptes are very powerful as we used them if dont able to change anything inside it or can invoke the variable substituion .
so use double quotes instaed.
echo $LINE | sed -e "s/12345678/$replace/g"

Add spaces after punctuation marks with sed

I need to capitalize a txt file but I found some problems when I try to add a space after any punctuation mark with sed. For instance: "Hello,World" -> to "Hello, World"
I tried the following:
#!/bin/bash
if [ $# != 1 ]; then
echo "No parameter"
exit
fi
cp $1 $1.bak
ARCH1=/tmp/`basename $1`.$$
sed 's/[A-Z]*/\L&/g' $1 > $ARCH1
sed -i 's/^./\u&/' $ARCH1
sed 's/ */\ /g' $ARCH1 #Here I replace >= 2 spaces for 1
sed 's/, */, /g' $ARCH1
#These 2 lines don't work well
sed 's/. */. /g' $ARCH1
sed 's/; */; /g' $ARCH1
mv $ARCH1 $1
The script doesn't crash, but the output is not the one that I expect.
I believe the reason your script doesn't work is that you forgot to pass -i to sed in several calls, and also that you don't escape . in the regex, so that . matches any character.
I also believe that a simpler way to do what you're trying to do is
sed -i.bak 's/[A-Z]*/\L&/g; s/\([.,;]\) */\1 /' "$1"
-i.bak edits the file in-place and creates a backup with the .bak extension, and the script is simply
s/[A-Z]*/\L&/g # lower-case everything (I got that from your code)
s/\([.,;]\) */\1 / # replace spaces after period, comma or semicolon
Here
[.,;] is a character set matching period, comma or semicolon,
\(stuff\) captures stuff in a group for later use, and
\1 is a back reference referring to the first such capture.
Note that this is a very simple approach. If your text, for example, contains ellipses (...), it'll waltz right over that and make ... into . . ., and similar caveats apply for ?! and such.
Using GNU sed:
$ echo "foo;BAR,BaZ.qux" | sed -r 's/[[:punct:]]+/& /g; s/[[:alnum:]]+/\L\u&/g'
Foo; Bar, Baz. Qux
\L lower cases the whole word, then \u upper cases the first character.
See your regex(7) man page for regular expression documentation.

How to replace variable value with its absolute path in file?

I Want to search variable and replace with its absolute path in file.
setenv ABC /home/xyz
cat file.txt
${ABC}/Test/Folder_1
${ABC}/Test/Folder_2
I want to replace all occurance of the ${ABC} by /home/xyz.
I tried by the below mentioned way, but does not work,
sed -i 's/\$ABC/echo $ABC/g' file.txt
I can do by below mentioned way, but I do not want to do this way.(I have to put so many back slash)
$ echo $ABC | sed -i 's/\$ABC/\/home\/xyz/g' file.txt
Please give me some suggestion for this question.
Thank You.
If you really want to use the value from a variable in your replacement string, you could use
sed "s#\${ABC}#$ABC#g" file.txt
Character after s in sed is the delimiter and it can be any one character of your choice and it works as long as it's not in the string-to-be-matched and string-to-be-replaced.
Example :
sed 's:string-to-be-matched:string-to-be-replaced:g' file-to-be-edited
: is the delimiter
g means global replacement.
In your case, as the string-to-be-replaced contains the / , the same you are using as sed delimiter.
Simple Solution will be :
sed -i 's:${ABC}:'"$ABC"':g' fill.txt
'" is at either end of $ABC in the replacement string. Purpose is to expand shell variable to use with sed
Another way to get the absolute path is readlink -f ${ABC}/Test/Folder_2
Or the perl alternative to your slash hungry command
$ echo $ABC | sed -i 's/\$ABC/\/home\/xyz/g' file.txt
would be
$ echo $ABC | perl -p -i -e 's!\$ABC!/home/xyz!g'
the first character after the 's above will be used as the delimiter in the replacement expression (i.e. 's#foo#bar#g')

Why can s command of sed can be followed by a comma?

I saw someone use an expression like: sed -e 's, *$,,'
does anybody know why we can use it like this, and what does it do?
I thought the s command should be sed -e 'addr,addrs/reg/sub/' ?
From Using different delimiters in sed:
sed takes whatever follows the "s" as the separator
It is a good way to avoid escaping too much. Code is more readable if you use a delimiter that is not present in the string you want to handle.
For example let's say we want to replace lo/bye from a string. With / as delimiter it would be a little messy:
$ echo "hello/bye" | sed 's/lo\/bye/aa/g'
helaa
So if we define another separator it is more clear:
$ echo "hello/bye" | sed 's|lo/bye|aa|g'
helaa
$ echo "hello/bye" | sed 's,lo/bye,aa,g'
helaa

Environment variable substitution in sed

If I run these commands from a script:
#my.sh
PWD=bla
sed 's/xxx/'$PWD'/'
...
$ ./my.sh
xxx
bla
it is fine.
But, if I run:
#my.sh
sed 's/xxx/'$PWD'/'
...
$ ./my.sh
$ sed: -e expression #1, char 8: Unknown option to `s'
I read in tutorials that to substitute environment variables from shell you need to stop, and 'out quote' the $varname part so that it is not substituted directly, which is what I did, and which works only if the variable is defined immediately before.
How can I get sed to recognize a $var as an environment variable as it is defined in the shell?
Your two examples look identical, which makes problems hard to diagnose. Potential problems:
You may need double quotes, as in sed 's/xxx/'"$PWD"'/'
$PWD may contain a slash, in which case you need to find a character not contained in $PWD to use as a delimiter.
To nail both issues at once, perhaps
sed 's#xxx#'"$PWD"'#'
In addition to Norman Ramsey's answer, I'd like to add that you can double-quote the entire string (which may make the statement more readable and less error prone).
So if you want to search for 'foo' and replace it with the content of $BAR, you can enclose the sed command in double-quotes.
sed 's/foo/$BAR/g'
sed "s/foo/$BAR/g"
In the first, $BAR will not expand correctly while in the second $BAR will expand correctly.
Another easy alternative:
Since $PWD will usually contain a slash /, use | instead of / for the sed statement:
sed -e "s|xxx|$PWD|"
You can use other characters besides "/" in substitution:
sed "s#$1#$2#g" -i FILE
一. bad way: change delimiter
sed 's/xxx/'"$PWD"'/'
sed 's:xxx:'"$PWD"':'
sed 's#xxx#'"$PWD"'#'
maybe those not the final answer,
you can not known what character will occur in $PWD, / : OR #.
if delimiter char in $PWD, they will break the expression
the good way is replace(escape) the special character in $PWD.
二. good way: escape delimiter
for example:
try to replace URL as $url (has : / in content)
x.com:80/aa/bb/aa.js
in string $tmp
URL
A. use / as delimiter
escape / as \/ in var (before use in sed expression)
## step 1: try escape
echo ${url//\//\\/}
x.com:80\/aa\/bb\/aa.js #escape fine
echo ${url//\//\/}
x.com:80/aa/bb/aa.js #escape not success
echo "${url//\//\/}"
x.com:80\/aa\/bb\/aa.js #escape fine, notice `"`
## step 2: do sed
echo $tmp | sed "s/URL/${url//\//\\/}/"
URL
echo $tmp | sed "s/URL/${url//\//\/}/"
URL
OR
B. use : as delimiter (more readable than /)
escape : as \: in var (before use in sed expression)
## step 1: try escape
echo ${url//:/\:}
x.com:80/aa/bb/aa.js #escape not success
echo "${url//:/\:}"
x.com\:80/aa/bb/aa.js #escape fine, notice `"`
## step 2: do sed
echo $tmp | sed "s:URL:${url//:/\:}:g"
x.com:80/aa/bb/aa.js
With your question edit, I see your problem. Let's say the current directory is /home/yourname ... in this case, your command below:
sed 's/xxx/'$PWD'/'
will be expanded to
sed `s/xxx//home/yourname//
which is not valid. You need to put a \ character in front of each / in your $PWD if you want to do this.
Actually, the simplest thing (in GNU sed, at least) is to use a different separator for the sed substitution (s) command. So, instead of s/pattern/'$mypath'/ being expanded to s/pattern//my/path/, which will of course confuse the s command, use s!pattern!'$mypath'!, which will be expanded to s!pattern!/my/path!. I’ve used the bang (!) character (or use anything you like) which avoids the usual, but-by-no-means-your-only-choice forward slash as the separator.
Dealing with VARIABLES within sed
[root#gislab00207 ldom]# echo domainname: None > /tmp/1.txt
[root#gislab00207 ldom]# cat /tmp/1.txt
domainname: None
[root#gislab00207 ldom]# echo ${DOMAIN_NAME}
dcsw-79-98vm.us.oracle.com
[root#gislab00207 ldom]# cat /tmp/1.txt | sed -e 's/domainname: None/domainname: ${DOMAIN_NAME}/g'
--- Below is the result -- very funny.
domainname: ${DOMAIN_NAME}
--- You need to single quote your variable like this ...
[root#gislab00207 ldom]# cat /tmp/1.txt | sed -e 's/domainname: None/domainname: '${DOMAIN_NAME}'/g'
--- The right result is below
domainname: dcsw-79-98vm.us.oracle.com
VAR=8675309
echo "abcde:jhdfj$jhbsfiy/.hghi$jh:12345:dgve::" |\
sed 's/:[0-9]*:/:'$VAR':/1'
where VAR contains what you want to replace the field with
I had similar problem, I had a list and I have to build a SQL script based on template (that contained #INPUT# as element to replace):
for i in LIST
do
awk "sub(/\#INPUT\#/,\"${i}\");" template.sql >> output
done
If your replacement string may contain other sed control characters, then a two-step substitution (first escaping the replacement string) may be what you want:
PWD='/a\1&b$_' # these are problematic for sed
PWD_ESC=$(printf '%s\n' "$PWD" | sed -e 's/[\/&]/\\&/g')
echo 'xxx' | sed "s/xxx/$PWD_ESC/" # now this works as expected
for me to replace some text against the value of an environment variable in a file with sed works only with quota as the following:
sed -i 's/original_value/'"$MY_ENVIRNONMENT_VARIABLE"'/g' myfile.txt
BUT when the value of MY_ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE contains a URL (ie https://andreas.gr) then the above was not working.
THEN use different delimiter:
sed -i "s|original_value|$MY_ENVIRNONMENT_VARIABLE|g" myfile.txt

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