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Using sed to delete string between delimiters

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# 1  
Old 11-13-2007
Java Using sed to delete string between delimiters
Hi There!
I have the following string

Quote:
P1|10,9:12/123456789|,10:1|11,10:60|15,9:5/12345|,10:1|
which i need to convert to

Quote:
P1|12/123456789|1|60|5/12345|1|
i.e. between each occurence of the delimiter ('|' in this case), i need to delete all characters from the '|' to the ':' so that |10,9:12/xxx| becomes |12/xxx|

How can i do this using sed?

Thanks in advance!
# 2  
Old 11-13-2007
I'm rustic, I'm using "base algorithmic" to resolve problems.
So, you can adapt it to any language, I hope ! Smilie

Code:
#!/bin/ksh

a="P1|10,9:12/123456789|,10:1|11,10:60|15,9:5/12345|,10:1|"
savea=$a

while [ "$a" != "" ]
do
        b=$(echo $a | cut -s -d'|' -f1)
        c=$(echo $b | cut -s -d: -f2)

        if [ "$c" = "" ] ; then
                c=$b
        fi

        if [ "$z" != "" ] ; then
                z=$z"|"$c
        else
                z=$c
        fi

        a=$(echo $a | cut -s -d'|' -f2-)
done

echo a=$savea
echo z=$z

Output :
Code:
a=P1|10,9:12/123456789|,10:1|11,10:60|15,9:5/12345|,10:1|
z=P1|12/123456789|1|60|5/12345|1

Hope it will help you ! Smilie
# 3  
Old 11-13-2007
try
Code:
> echo 'P1|10,9:12/123456789|,10:1|11,10:60|15,9:5/12345|,10:1|'|sed -e "s_|[^|]*:_|_g"
P1|12/123456789|1|60|5/12345|1|

# 4  
Old 11-13-2007
Nice, but very difficult to understand for a newbie. SmilieSmilie

Quote:
Originally Posted by Klashxx
try
Code:
> echo 'P1|10,9:12/123456789|,10:1|11,10:60|15,9:5/12345|,10:1|'|sed -e "s_|[^|]*:_|_g"
P1|12/123456789|1|60|5/12345|1|

# 5  
Old 11-13-2007
sed -e "s_|[^|]*:_|_g"

s is used to match a regular expression (for simplicity, to match some part of the given text) and replace it with some other text. Here's what the manual says:
Code:
       s/regexp/replacement/
	      Attempt  to match regexp against the pattern space.  If success-
	      ful,  replace  that  portion  matched  with  replacement.    The
	      replacement may contain the special character & to refer to that
	      portion of the pattern space  which  matched,  and  the  special
	      escapes  \1  through  \9	to refer to the corresponding matching
	      sub-expressions in the regexp.

Underscores (_) are used here to define the regular expression that is used (usually front shash (/) is used)

|[^|]*: matches text starting with | and ending with colon (Smilie. This text is replaced by |

g tells sed to do match-and-replace globally. that is, keep repeating this at every possible place in the input text
# 6  
Old 11-13-2007
indeed quite difficult to understand!

could you explain what's happening there?


EDIT: didn't see yogesh had already replied...all makes sense now, thanks guys!!!
# 7  
Old 11-14-2007
Quote:
Originally Posted by [CODE
|[^|]*: [/CODE] matches text starting with | and ending with colon :
One slight clarification, the point here is the use of the regex:
Code:
[^|]

Lets see an example:
Code:
> echo 'P1|10,9:12/123456789|,10:1|11,10:60|15,9:5/12345|,10:1|'|sed -e "s_|.*:_|_g"
P1|1|

|.*: matchs any character (starting with | and ending with : ) and the result is not what we expect.
Code:
 echo 'P1|10,9:12/123456789|,10:1|11,10:60|15,9:5/12345|,10:1|'|sed -e "s_|*:_|_g"    
P1|10,9|12/123456789|,10|1|11,10|60|15,9|5/12345|,10|1|

|*: nothing happens here because we are looking for any number (including zero) of the single character | that immediately precedes the asterisk.

So the trick to solve the problem is match any number of any character between | and : except | and that's what we are getting with |[^|]*:

Regards
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