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Full Discussion: Simple awk script for positional replacement in text?
Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers Simple awk script for positional replacement in text? Post 302340998 by JFS on Wednesday 5th of August 2009 12:30:44 AM
Old 08-05-2009
Simple awk script for positional replacement in text?
I have a string of letters. (They happen to be DNA, not that it's relevant to the question.) For analysis purposes, I need to replace the information at some of the sites. I need to do this based on their position, not the information in that position.

I also need to ignore differences at other sites, so I can't do a simple "wild card search and replace." I remember using awk scripts to do something like this about a decade ago, but I don't remember how.

For example, if you wanted to take the following strings,

AAAAATAAAGAAAA
and
AAAATTAAAGAAAA
and
AAAAATAAACAAAA

and in each case, turn the 10th letter into an "N," without changing any of the other letters, how would you do that? (The actual files are about 500 characters long, really only one "field" and will have about 30 position-specific replacements. I'll probably deal with each line separately, come to think of it.)

I'm also willing to use a web tool or text editor....MacOS or Unix terminal on a Mac. (Last time I had to do something like this was 1998.)

I know the forum rules say to use standard notation for programs, but if I could read standard notation with no further explanation, I probably would not need to be posting this question. So text-y replies would be most welcome. Thanks!
 

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LEARN ABOUT OSX

setfile

SETFILE(1)						    BSD General Commands Manual 						SETFILE(1)

NAME

     /usr/bin/SetFile -- set attributes of files and directories

SYNOPSIS

     /usr/bin/SetFile [-P] [-a attributes] [-c creator] [-d date] [-m date] [-t type] file ...

DESCRIPTION

     /usr/bin/SetFile is a tool to set the file attributes on files in an HFS+ directory. It attempts to be similar to the setfile command in MPW.
     It can apply rules to more than one file with the options applying to all files listed.

     Flags:

     -P  Acts on a symlink file instead on the file the symlink resolves to.

     -a attributes  Sets the file attributes bits where attributes is a string of case sensitive letters. Each letter corresponds to a file
		    attribute: an uppercase letter indicates that the attribute bit is set (1), a lowercase letter indicates that it is not (0).
		    Note: attributes not specified remain unchanged.

		    A | a    Alias file

		    B | b    Has bundle

		    C | c    Custom icon (allowed on folders)

		    D | d    Located on the desktop (allowed on folders)

		    E | e    Extension is hidden (allowed on folders)

		    I | i    Inited - Finder is aware of this file and has given it a location in a window. (allowed on folders)

		    L | l    Locked

		    M | m    Shared (can run multiple times)

		    N | n    File has no INIT resource

		    S | s    System file (name locked)

		    T | t    "Stationery Pad" file

		    V | v    Invisible (allowed on folders)

		    Z | z    Busy (allowed on folders)

     -c creator     Specifies the file's creator, where creator can be a string of four MacRoman characters, an empty string ('') designating a
		    null creator, or a binary, decimal, octal, or hexadecimal number in standard notation (e.g. 0x52486368).

     -d date	    Sets the creation date, where date is a string of the form: "mm/dd/[yy]yy [hh:mm:[:ss] [AM | PM]]" Notes: Enclose the string
		    in quotation marks if it contains spaces. The date must be in the Unix epoch, that is, between 1/1/1970 and 1/18/2038. If the
		    year is provided as a two-digit year, it is assumed to be in the 21st century and must be from 00 (2000) through 38 (2038).

     -m date	    Sets the modification date where date is a string of the form in -d above. (mm/dd/[yy]yy [hh:mm:[:ss] [AM | PM]])

     -t type	    Sets the file type, where type can be a string of four MacRoman characters, an empty string ('') designating a null type, or a
		    binary, decimal, octal, or hexadecimal number in standard notation (e.g. 0x55455955).

RETURN VALUES

     0	      attributes set
     1	      syntax error
     2	      any other error

SEE ALSO

     GetFileInfo(1)

EXAMPLES

     This command line sets the modification date of "myFile":

     SetFile -m "8/4/2001 16:13" myFile

Mac OS X							  January 4, 2009							  Mac OS X
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