Special character \


 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Special character \
# 1  
Old 09-10-2009
Special character \

Hi,
In the shell script, i need to remove the special charater "\" with "\\". For example, i need to replace "D:\FXT\ABC.TXT" with "D:\\FXT\\ABC.TXT".

However, when trying to do something like , i get the below error :-
-->echo "D:\FXT\ABC.TXT" | sed -e 's#\#\\#g'
sed: 0602-404 Function s#\#\\#g cannot be parsed.


Can you suggest me why this is wrong , or how to replace the above.

Thanks.
# 2  
Old 09-10-2009
With this...

Code:
echo "D:\FXT\ABC.TXT" | sed 's/\\/\\\\/g'

# 3  
Old 09-10-2009
Quote:
Can you suggest me why this is wrong , or how to replace the above.

you need to escape the '\" also since its a special character for sed.


Code:
echo "D:\FXT\ABC.TXT" | sed -e 's#\\#\\\\#g'

should work.
# 4  
Old 09-10-2009
Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
The above is working fine in standalone basis,
When I try to assign this to a variable, the same error comes :-
$1= echo
var1=`echo "D:\FXT\ABC.TXT" | sed 's/\\/\\\\/g'`
sed: 0602-404 Function s/\/\\/g cannot be parsed.

Any pointers ?
# 5  
Old 09-10-2009
Perhaps you have an old version of sed....What's your OS ???
# 6  
Old 09-10-2009
Its IBM AIX 5.1.
But any pointers ?
# 7  
Old 09-10-2009
Sometimes quoting backslashes can be tricky and surprising. If quoting them once solved it the first time, I would try quoting them again to solve the same error the second time.
Code:
var1=`echo "D:\FXT\ABC.TXT" | sed 's/\\\\/\\\\\\\\/g'`

Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

Special character $$

Hi, on ksh What does the following do? grep -v "toolbox" $home_oracle/.profile >$home_oracle/.profile.$$ Thanks. Please use CODE tags as required by forum rules! (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: big123456
3 Replies

2. UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

What is the meaning the $ special character?

Hello... and thank you in advanced for any help anyone can offer me I'm hoping someone can explain what the leading $ is/means (i.e. $PS1, $HOME, etc).... I was having a discussion with someone and was trying to explain it... Which I felt like I came up kind of short with how well I did it. ... (12 Replies)
Discussion started by: bodisha
12 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

Hidden special character

Hi, Anyone can help with my problem, I have an issue with hiddend special character each line of my file. When I open the file using vim #test.txt aaa bbb ccc Inside the vim I command :set list, and then the list would become #test.txt aaa$ bbb$ ccc$ How to remove the... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: fspalero
4 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

Egrep with special character?

how do i egrep set of characters ? egrep -iwF "id|the|*" throws following excption egrep can use only egrep pattern syntax I want to egrep the string along with (*) special character (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: nikhil jain
4 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

^M special character in Filename

Hi All, Special character ? is added in between filename. Am not able to figure our why this is happening. In my Development environment special characters are not present. This issue is happening in the higher environment. It would be helpful if somebody can tell what are the possible... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: weknowd
3 Replies

6. Shell Programming and Scripting

Grep -F for special character

a='CASH$$A' /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -F "$a" *.txt It is not able to grep CASH$$A string as it contains special character $$. I also tried with /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -F '$a' *.txt but still not working. I have to assign CASH$$A to a variable and serach that variable..i dont want to search the... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: millan
8 Replies

7. Shell Programming and Scripting

Vi special character

When editing a file, vi displays a special character as ^L. Can you tell me the escaped character to be used in awk? And can that escaped character be used in a regexp in both sed and awk? (7 Replies)
Discussion started by: dmesserly
7 Replies

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

Deleteing one character after an special character

I have below line in a unix file, I want to delete one character after "Â". 20091020.Non-Agency CMO Daily Trade Recap Â~V Hybrids The result should be : 20091020.Non-Agency CMO Daily Trade Recap  Hybrids i dont want to use "~V" anywhere in the sed command or any other command, just remove... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: mohsin.quazi
1 Replies

9. Shell Programming and Scripting

special character

Hi, I am trying to unload file from a database. Which contains few lines with the character below. Rest of the data was unloaded appropriately. a) What does this below character means? b) How can i remove it, I already have sed '/^$/d' c) Will this effect the file by any means... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: tostay2003
4 Replies

10. Programming

special character ?

hey there im a bit stuck on executing commands that include the special character '?'. can someone recommend a way on how i would be able to execute it?? i thought the glob function could be useful (still mite be) but upon entering the command 'ls pars?' it listed all the files in the... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: mile1982
1 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question