Solaris

Dear Forum members,

I am simply trying to take a 'string' or 'text' line from
inside a file( ex. '01020408')and then trying to grab positions
5 and 6, followed by 2 and 3, and so on. Basically realigning
the text to another file or to a variable in Shell.

What is the simplest way to do this? Can I use
CUT (to multiple Var's), or CASE, PRINTF, AWK, ..... ? I am not an expert
obviously, so I do not have a solid understanding of
AWK and SED commands for example. I obviously need something
that parses a line. I can then put the parsed pieces into place
using variables,etc.

Could you please give me your advice and syntax if possible?
Thank you,

Hman

I would suggest sed(1). It allows you to slice and dice both fixed and variable length records. Using the (s)ubstitute command, you can identify columns and rearrange them as desired. Below is an example of reversing the order of 4 2-byte pairs:

echo "01020304" | sed -e "s/\(..\)\(..\)\(..\)\(..\)/\4\3\2\1/"
04030201

A strong grasp of regular expressions is very helpful.