read a variable character by character, substitute characters with something else


 
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# 1  
Old 06-06-2008
read a variable character by character, substitute characters with something else

im having trouble doing this:

i have a variable with 2 characters repeating e.g. aababbbaaaababaabbaabbba

is there a way i can search the variable for a's and b's and then change a's to b's and b's to a's?

im guessing its like getting the 1's compliment of the string

im doing this in BASH, and ive looked into seeing if sed or awk could help but i got nothing

any help would be greatly appreciated
thanks
# 2  
Old 06-06-2008
echo $var | tr a z | tr b a | tr z b

more info: man tr
we use z as temporary placeholder as we can only transform one character a time
# 3  
Old 06-06-2008
Hammer & Screwdriver I think you may need to use a 'dummy' character

In order to switch things, the first cannot immediately be switched to the second. Take a look at the following where I ...
translate a to z
translate b to a
translate z to b

Code:
> echo $var1
aababbbaaaababaabbaabbba
> var2=$(echo $var1 | tr a z)
> var3=$(echo $var2 | tr b a)
> var4=$(echo $var3 | tr z b)
> echo $var4
bbabaaabbbbababbaabbaaab

 
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