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Replace only first found white spaces with some other characters

 
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# 1  
Old 04-17-2009
Replace only first found white spaces with some other characters
Anybody can help me

How can I replace only four first white spaces with , or any other characters

aaaa 08/31/2004 08/31/2009 permanent Logical Processors in System: 64
bedad 08/16/2001 08/15/2011 permanent Logical Processors in System: 64
badnv14 05/31/2008 05/30/2013 permanent Logical Processors in System: 96
badob10 03/30/2006 03/29/2011 permanent Logical Processors in System: 16
badb19 05/31/2008 05/30/2013 permanent Logical Processors in System: 56
bhpar20 04/01/2009 04/30/2009 temporary Logical Processors in System: 32

I think we can do it in one command in unix but I am not able to thanks
I will appreciate the help
# 2  
Old 04-17-2009
There maybe a way to do it in one line, but this is what I came up with.

This will replace the first instance
Code:
echo "aaaa 08/31/2004 08/31/2009 permanent Logical Processors in System: 64" | sed 's/ /,/'

This will replace the second instance
Code:
echo "aaaa 08/31/2004 08/31/2009 permanent Logical Processors in System: 64" | sed 's/ /,/2'

This will replace the thirdinstance
Code:
echo "aaaa 08/31/2004 08/31/2009 permanent Logical Processors in System: 64" | sed 's/ /,/3'


If you run the first one 3 times on the string it should output what you want.
# 3  
Old 04-17-2009
Code:
# cat t.log
aaaa 08/31/2004 08/31/2009 permanent Logical Processors in System: 64
bedad 08/16/2001 08/15/2011 permanent Logical Processors in System: 64
badnv14 05/31/2008 05/30/2013 permanent Logical Processors in System: 96
badob10 03/30/2006 03/29/2011 permanent Logical Processors in System: 16
badb19 05/31/2008 05/30/2013 permanent Logical Processors in System: 56
bhpar20 04/01/2009 04/30/2009 temporary Logical Processors in System: 32

# cat test.sh
declare -a FILES
COUNT=0
while read line
do
        line=`echo $line | sed 's/ /,/'`
        line=`echo $line | sed 's/ /,/'`
        line=`echo $line | sed 's/ /,/'`
        echo $line
done < "t.log"

# sh test.sh
aaaa,08/31/2004,08/31/2009,permanent Logical Processors in System: 64
bedad,08/16/2001,08/15/2011,permanent Logical Processors in System: 64
badnv14,05/31/2008,05/30/2013,permanent Logical Processors in System: 96
badob10,03/30/2006,03/29/2011,permanent Logical Processors in System: 16
badb19,05/31/2008,05/30/2013,permanent Logical Processors in System: 56
bhpar20,04/01/2009,04/30/2009,temporary Logical Processors in System: 32

# 4  
Old 04-17-2009
You can do it that way, but it is probably easier to do the changes in a single sed run. It is possible to combine several sed-commands to a single script:

Code:
cat file | sed -n 's/ /,/;s/ /,/;s/ /,/;s/ /,/;s/ /,/p' > newfile

Of course it is possible to create a more complex regexp to change the first four spaces to commas in one sed-command, but it will probably be not any faster (or any more readable) than the presented solution:

Code:
cat file | sed 's/^\([^ ]*\) \([^ ]*\) \([^ ]*\) \([^ ]*\) /\1,\2,\3,\4,/' > newfile

I hope this helps.

bakunin
# 5  
Old 04-17-2009
Code:
awk '{for(i=1;i<=4;i++){$(i)=$(i)","}}1' file

# 6  
Old 04-18-2009
Hi.

The GNU version of sed allows substitution of a specific numbered occurrence of a string in a line. Here is an example showing that feature for blanks and 4 other characters:
Code:
#!/usr/bin/env bash

# @(#) s1       Demonstrate (GNU) sed substitution of nth occurrence of string.

echo
set +o nounset
LC_ALL=C ; LANG=C ; export LC_ALL LANG
echo "Environment: LC_ALL = $LC_ALL, LANG = $LANG"
echo "(Versions displayed with local utility \"version\")"
version >/dev/null 2>&1 && version "=o" $(_eat $0 $1) sed
set -o nounset
echo

FILE=${1-data1}

echo " Data file $FILE:"
cat $FILE

echo
echo " Results:"
sed -e 's/ /,/4' -e 's/ /=/3' -e 's/ /;/2' -e 's/ /@/1' $FILE

exit 0

Producing:
Code:
% ./s1

Environment: LC_ALL = C, LANG = C
(Versions displayed with local utility "version")
OS, ker|rel, machine: Linux, 2.6.11-x1, i686
Distribution        : Xandros Desktop 3.0.3 Business
GNU bash 2.05b.0
GNU sed version 4.1.2

 Data file data1:
a b c d e
x y z

 Results:
a@b;c=d,e
x@y;z

This is not significantly different from the other solutions with sed in this case, but may be handy to know about in other situations.

You can modify the form to use a single instruction by separating the individual sed commands with semicolons as in other posts ... cheers, drl
 
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