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Find the middle character from a string using sed

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# 1  
Old 08-22-2010
Find the middle character from a string using sed
Input:
Code:
qwertmyuiop

It should print "m".
What's the command to do this with sed?
# 2  
Old 08-22-2010
Code:
$ echo qwertmyuiop | sed ':a;s/.\(.*\)./\1/;ta'
m

or
Code:
sed -e ':a' -e 's/.\(.*\)./\1/;ta'

Last edited by Scrutinizer; 08-22-2010 at 02:38 AM..
This User Gave Thanks to Scrutinizer For This Post:
guruprasadpr
# 3  
Old 08-22-2010
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrutinizer
Code:
$ echo qwertmyuiop | sed ':a;s/.\(.*\)./\1/;ta'
m

or
Code:
sed -e ':a' -e 's/.\(.*\)./\1/;ta'

Could you please explain these command?
(:a and ;ta) how are those use?
# 4  
Old 08-22-2010
:a is a label ( label "a" )

ta means jump to label a is the previous command was successfull (if the s command managed to do a replacement)

So this creates a loop where after each iteration the outer two characters are removed until only the center character is left if there are an odd number of characters...
This User Gave Thanks to Scrutinizer For This Post:
cola
# 5  
Old 08-22-2010
Code:
echo "qwertmyuiop" |awk 'BEGIN{FS=OFS=""}{print $(NF/2+1)}'

This User Gave Thanks to rdcwayx For This Post:
cola
# 6  
Old 08-22-2010
Code:
# x=$(expr $(echo qwertmyuiop | wc -c) / 2) ; sed "s/ */\n/$x" al | sed -n '2s/^\(.\).*/\1/p'
m

# 7  
Old 08-23-2010
Code:
s="qwertmonyuiop"
echo ${s:((${#s}/2)):1}

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