CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxsed
user1460691
user1460691

Reputation: 71

Match certain instances by sed in Linux

Experts, I have a very basic requirement here to process a string, i.e., I want to replace all but the first of , in the string with a space character:

I know to replace all of them, I can do:

$ echo "abc,def,ghi,jkl" | sed 's/,/ /g'
abc def ghi jkl

To replace only the first 1 of them, I can do:

$ echo "abc,def,ghi,jkl" | sed 's/,/ /1'
abc def,ghi,jkl

But how do I replace all but the first one of ","? That is, the desired output would be:

abc,def ghi jkl

Upvotes: 2

Views: 45

Answers (2)

potong
potong

Reputation: 58420

This might work for you (GNU sed):

sed -r ':a;s/(,.*),/\1 /;ta' file

This use greed to work backwards through the sting replacing all but the first , with spaces.

Alternatively, working forwards use:

sed -r ':a;s/(,[^,]*),/\1 /;ta' file

Or use this, peculiar to GNU:

sed 's/,/ /2g' file

Upvotes: 0

Kent
Kent

Reputation: 195059

quick and dirty:

sed 's/,/\x99/;s/,/ /g;s/\x99/,/'

or

sed 's/,/\x99 /g;s/\x99 /,/;s/\x99//g'

same idea

Upvotes: 2

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