echo 'a,b,"cc,dd,ee",f,ii,"jj,kk",mmm' | \ awk -v sep='"' '{ for(i=1;i<=length($0); i++) { ch=substr($0,i,1) if(ch==sep) {inside=!inside} if (inside && ch==",") {continue} printf("%s",ch) } printf("\n") }'