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Function to add escape character before specified character

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# 1  
Old 12-30-2013
Function to add escape character before specified character
Hi ,

I am looking for a function which will do the following.

1. I have a variable which will hold few special chracter like
Code:
SPECIAL_CHARS="& ;"

2. I have an escape character.
Code:
ESCAPE_CHAR="\"

3. Now when I passed some string in the function it will return the same string but now it will have the escape character before all the special characters.
Code:
Example:
Input: abcd fkaj&dsdsd
Output: abcd fkaj\&dsdsd

# 2  
Old 12-30-2013
Code:
# echo "abcd fkaj&dsdsd" | ruby -e 's=gets; puts s.gsub(/([& ;])\1*/,"\\\\\\1")'
abcd\ fkaj\&dsdsd

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Anupam_Halder
# 3  
Old 12-30-2013
Python re module maybe handy for that task:
Code:
echo "abcd fkaj&dsdsd;"|python -c 'import re;import sys;print re.escape(sys.stdin.read().strip()),'

This User Gave Thanks to Klashxx For This Post:
Anupam_Halder
# 4  
Old 12-30-2013
Awk :
Code:
$ echo "abcd fkaj&dsdsd" | awk 'gsub(/[[:punct:]]|[[:space:]]/,"\\\\&")'
abcd\ fkaj\&dsdsd

Last edited by Akshay Hegde; 12-30-2013 at 07:59 AM.. Reason: backslash
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Anupam_Halder
# 5  
Old 12-30-2013
Another approach:
Code:
SPECIAL_CHARS='& ;'
ESCAPE_CHAR='\'
echo 'abcd fkaj&dsdsd' | awk -v SC="$SPECIAL_CHARS" -v EC="$ESCAPE_CHAR" '
        BEGIN {
                n = split ( SC, A )
        }
        {
                for ( i = 1; i <= n; i++ )
                        gsub ( A[i], EC "\\&", $0 )
                print
        }
'

This User Gave Thanks to Yoda For This Post:
Anupam_Halder
# 6  
Old 12-30-2013
Try also
Code:
awk -v X="& ;" -v E='\' '{gsub(/./,"&|",X); sub (/.$/,"", X); gsub (X, "\\" E "&")}1' <<< 'abcd fkaj&dsdsd'
abcd\ fkaj\&dsdsd

If you know the escape char is back slash, this may work:
Code:
awk -v X="& ;" -v E='\' '{gsub(/./,"&|",X); sub (/.$/,"", X); gsub (X, E E "&")}1' <<< 'abcd fkaj&dsdsd'
abcd\ fkaj\&dsdsd

Yoda's approach misses the space special char as that is used as a separator by the split function.

EDIT: Even simpler:
Code:
awk -v X="& ;" -v E='\' '{ gsub ("["X"]", E E "&")}1' <<< 'abcd fkaj&dsdsd'
abcd\ fkaj\&dsdsd

Last edited by RudiC; 12-30-2013 at 01:40 PM..
This User Gave Thanks to RudiC For This Post:
Anupam_Halder
# 7  
Old 12-30-2013
Quote:
Originally Posted by RudiC
Yoda's approach misses the space special char as that is used as a separator by the split function.
I don't think OP want blank space to be escaped. I don't see blank space escaped in OP's expected output.

I guess OP want to escape only those characters defined in variable SPECIAL_CHARS
This User Gave Thanks to Yoda For This Post:
Anupam_Halder
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