CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sed
fembot
fembot

Reputation: 87

What does this sed expression mean?

I'm trying to tool around with some scripts I have inherited at work and wanted to see if someone could decipher what this expression is attempting to accomplish:

|sed -e 's#\(.\{36\}\)\(.*\)#\1|\2#g' | sed -e 's#\(.\{49\}\)\(.*\)#\1|\2#g'

I have tried to reverse engineer this via the reference manuals and google, but have not been successful.

Thanks!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 218

Answers (2)

alinsoar
alinsoar

Reputation: 15793

It means

  • insert after the first 36 chars of each line a '|'

  • in that ouput insert after the first 49 chars a '|'

  • all these insertions are done if the line contains at least 36 chars, respectively 49 chars.

  • you can do it shorter so:

    | sed ' s:^.\{36\}:&|:; s:^.\{49\}:&|: '

Upvotes: 2

Beta
Beta

Reputation: 99094

This is two sed statements. The first inserts a pipe character ('|') after the first 36 characters of the line, the second inserts a pipe character after the first 49 characters (including the pipe it inserted in the first step).

As far as I can tell, these could be written more concisely with the same effect:

|sed -e 's#\(.\{36\}\)#\1|#' | sed -e 's#\(.\{49\}\)#\1|#'

Upvotes: 2

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