Replace double quotes with a single quote within a double quoted string


 
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# 29  
Old 05-05-2014
Hi subbeh...
Again without knowing anything about the OPs data then there could be something like .......,",....... from an accidental typo input as it WILL still create an odd number of inverted commas, (double quotes)...
None of us have accounted for it in any code written so far...
Code:
Last login: Mon May  5 21:47:34 on ttys000
AMIGA:barrywalker~> echo '1234,"","qwerty",," abcd efg "h" bcd"efg
>   dfg",","","5"' > /tmp/text
AMIGA:barrywalker~> sed -e :a -e "s/\([^,]\)\"\([^,]\)/\1'\2/g;ta" < /tmp/text
1234,"","qwerty",," abcd efg 'h' bcd'efg
  dfg",","","5"
AMIGA:barrywalker~> #  dfg",","","5"
AMIGA:barrywalker~> # Error ^ here?
AMIGA:barrywalker~> # We have no idea from the OP if this will ever occur.
AMIGA:barrywalker~> _

# 30  
Old 05-05-2014
Quote:
Originally Posted by wisecracker
Hi subbeh...
Again without knowing anything about the OPs data then there could be something like .......,",....... from an accidental typo input as it WILL still create an odd number of inverted commas, (double quotes)...
None of us have accounted for it in any code written so far...
Hi wisecracker, I think I understand the OPs request quite clearly the way he described it. And although you make a valid point, I consider it as a data entry issue which I think is out of scope here.
This User Gave Thanks to Subbeh For This Post:
# 31  
Old 05-05-2014
Nice solution Subbeh

I think this an awk equivalent:

Code:
awk '{
   for(i=2;length(v=substr($0,i++,2));)
      if (v==",\"") i++
      else if(v ~ "\"[^,]") $0=substr($0,1,i-2) "\x27" substr($0,i)
}1' file

---------- Post updated at 08:29 AM ---------- Previous update was at 08:17 AM ----------

Or using GNU awk:

Code:
awk '{while((t=gensub(/([^,])"([^,])/, "\\1\x27\\2",$0))!=$0)$0=t}1' file

This User Gave Thanks to Chubler_XL For This Post:
# 32  
Old 05-06-2014
Hi @wisecracker, i just wanted tho show a practical usage of look-ahead/behid assertion, for me the important thing here is not the print statement and of course i can't guarantee python in all *nix boxes.

Also i didn't take care of just single double quotes fields.

Cheers.

Quote:
Originally Posted by wisecracker
Hi klashxx...

Just a couple of points here.
1) It looks as though you are using Python 2.x, (2.7.x), so your print statement would not
work on 3.x.x. Parentheses are needed to make 'print' a function 'print(your stuff here)'
2) Can you guarantee that all UNIX, Linux, CygWin etc, systems have a python version?

EDIT:-
To the OP is the part above the ^ character an error?
Code:
Last login: Mon May  5 19:09:15 on ttys000
AMIGA:barrywalker~> python
Python 2.7.1 (r271:86832, Aug  5 2011, 03:30:24) 
[GCC 4.2.1 (Based on Apple Inc. build 5658) (LLVM build 2335.15.00)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import re
>>> text='''1234,"","qwerty",," abcd efg "h" bcd"efg
...  dfg",","","5"'''
>>> print text
1234,"","qwerty",," abcd efg "h" bcd"efg
 dfg",","","5"
>>> 
>>> 
>>> print re.sub(r'(?<![,\A])"(?!(?:(,|\Z)))',"'",text)
1234,"","qwerty",," abcd efg 'h' bcd'efg
 dfg",","","5"
>>> # ^ is this an error?
... # Should it be a "'"?
... 
>>> exit()
AMIGA:barrywalker~> _

This User Gave Thanks to Klashxx For This Post:
# 33  
Old 05-08-2014
Sample awk translator
Code:
cat translator.awk
 
BEGIN { FS="," }
{
  for (i=1; i<=NF; i++) {
    printf "%s", translateEmbeddedQuote($i)
    if ( i< NF ) printf ","
    else printf "\n"
  }
}
function translateEmbeddedQuote(s, m,ts) {
  m=match(s,/^".*"$/)
  if (m) ts=substr(s, 2, length(s)-2 )
  else ts=s
  if (length(s)>1) gsub("\"","'",ts)
  if (m) ts="\"" ts "\""
  return ts
}

Input data:
Code:
cat valdor.txt
0000001111,"IBD","601725","6017257000681563","0430","163458","002820","002820000000","E0107815","1801 3E AVENUE         VAL-D"OR QCCA","0200","","","WD","CH","","4000320275","","124","124",,60.00,60.00,60.00,0.00,0.45,60.45,0.037500,"APP","00","EXC","5"

[/CODE]

Run the test:
Code:
awk -f translator.awk valdor.txt
0000001111,"IBD","601725","6017257000681563","0430","163458","002820","002820000000","E0107815","1801 3E AVENUE         VAL-D'OR QCCA","0200","","","WD","CH","","4000320275","","124","124",,60.00,60.00,60.00,0.00,0.45,60.45,0.037500,"APP","00","EXC","5"


Last edited by charles_n_may; 05-08-2014 at 06:06 PM.. Reason: removed shell prompt
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