Shell Programming and Scripting

$ cat file
abc:string"def
$ sed -e 's/\(^.*:\)\(.*\)\(".*$\)/\2/' file
string
$

sed 's/.*:\(.*\)".*/\1/' file

cat <<'EOF' |
Characters before :string" and characters after.
EOF
perl -wn -e 'print "$1\n" if m{[:](.*?)["]};'

string

awk '$0=$2' FS=: RS=\"

perl -nle'print $1 while /:(.*?)\"/g'

#!/bin/bash -

# @(#) s3       Demonstrate comparison of solutions.

echo
echo "(Versions displayed with local utility \"version\")"
version >/dev/null 2>&1 && version =o $(_eat $0 $1) awk perl sed

cat <<'EOF' >data1
Characters before :string" and characters after, :another instance".
EOF

echo
echo " Input file data1:"
cat data1

echo
echo " Results of perl, left-most, shortest extraction:"
perl -wn -e 'print "$1\n" if m{[:](.*?)["]};' data1

echo
echo " Results of perl, longest extraction:"
perl -wn -e 'print "$1\n" if m{[:](.*)["]};' data1

echo
echo " Results of one sed solution:"
sed -e 's/\(^.*:\)\(.*\)\(".*$\)/\2/' data1

echo
echo " Results of another sed solution:"
sed 's/.*:\(.*\)".*/\1/' data1

echo
echo " Results of one awk solution:"
awk '$0=$2' FS=: RS=\" data1

echo
echo " Results of perl, all extractions (if -> while;g):"
perl -wn -e 'print "$1\n" while m{[:](.*?)["]}g;' data1

exit 0

% ./s3

(Versions displayed with local utility "version")
Linux 2.6.11-x1
GNU bash 2.05b.0
GNU Awk 3.1.4
perl 5.8.4
GNU sed version 4.1.2

 Input file data1:
Characters before :string" and characters after, :another instance".

 Results of perl, left-most, shortest extraction:
string

 Results of perl, longest extraction:
string" and characters after, :another instance

 Results of one sed solution:
another instance

 Results of another sed solution:
another instance

 Results of one awk solution:
string
another instance

 Results of perl, all extractions (if -> while;g):
string
another instance