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SED - replace only on part of the string

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# 1  
Old 01-13-2012
SED - replace only on part of the string
Hello there,
I need some help.

I have a file containing this :
$ cat file
PARM1=(VAL11),PARM2=(VAL21,VAL22,VAL23),PARM3=(VAL31),PARM4=(VAL41,VAL42)

and I need to replace all the ',' by '|' but only those which are between brackets.
Output would be :
PARM1=(VAL11),PARM2=(VAL21|VAL22|VAL23),PARM3=(VAL31),PARM4=(VAL41|VAL42)

I almost find a solution with sed :
sed 's/\(([^)]*\),/\1|/g' file

But not all the comma are replaced :
PARM1=(VAL11),PARM2=(VAL21,VAL22|VAL23),PARM3=(VAL31),PARM4=(VAL41|VAL42)


Any idea ?

Sephi.
# 2  
Old 01-13-2012
I see a pattern here... All the commas you don't want replaced are right after a bracket. So we match a not-bracket with a comma after it, putting the not-bracket into the backreference, and putting a | where the comma was. So:

Code:
$ echo "PARM1=(VAL11),PARM2=(VAL21,VAL22,VAL23),PARM3=(VAL31),PARM4=(VAL41,VAL42)" | sed 's/\([^)]\),/\1|/g'

PARM1=(VAL11),PARM2=(VAL21|VAL22|VAL23),PARM3=(VAL31),PARM4=(VAL41|VAL42)

$

# 3  
Old 01-13-2012
How about this:

Code:
export PARM1="(VAL11),PARM2=(VAL21,VAL22,VAL23),PARM3=(VAL31),PARM4=(VAL41,VAL42)"

echo $PARM1 | sed 's/\b\(\,\)\b/|/g'

(VAL11),PARM2=(VAL21|VAL22|VAL23),PARM3=(VAL31),PARM4=(VAL41|VAL42)

# 4  
Old 01-13-2012
That's a new one on me, what's \b?
# 5  
Old 01-13-2012
Quote:
Originally Posted by Corona688
That's a new one on me, what's \b?
Extracted from the 'sed' book:
Quote:
\b Matches on a word boundary, where of the two surrounding characters
(x\by) one is a word-constituent character and the other is not.
# 6  
Old 01-13-2012
Thanks for your reply.

@Corona688 : actually my first example was not correct. In fact, the data that I have to manage is more dirty. Some value is surrounded with brackets, quotes or both, or even nothing. Also, some comma might be surrounded by spaces...

So we should work with this kind of data :
Code:
echo "PARM1=('VAL11'),PARM2=(VAL21,VAL22,VAL23), PARM3='VAL31' ,PARM4=(VAL41,VAL42),PARM5 = 'VAL51',PARM6=(VAL61)"

Your sed does not working anymore :'( :
Code:
echo "PARM1=('VAL11'),PARM2=(VAL21,VAL22,VAL23), PARM3='VAL31' ,PARM4=(VAL41,VAL42),PARM5 = 'VAL51',PARM6=(VAL61)" | sed 's/\([^)]\),/\1|/g'
PARM1=('VAL11'),PARM2=(VAL21|VAL22|VAL23), PARM3='VAL31' |PARM4=(VAL41|VAL42),PARM5 = 'VAL51'|PARM6=(VAL61)


@in2nix4life : your solution does not work for me, no comma is changed.
I tried other way with \b but failed...


Sephi.
# 7  
Old 01-13-2012
See if this works for you:
Code:
sed 's/\([A-Z0-9]\),/\1|/g' File
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