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Sed - Get Separator From String

 
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# 1  
Old 03-02-2010
CPU & Memory Sed - Get Separator From String
Hi All,

I have the following data in a korn shell variable:
Code:
   a="FirstValue|SecondValue|ThirdValue"

The value between "FirstValue", "SecondValue" and "ThirdValue" can change, in this case is a comma: "," and I need to print it only once. I need to know what is the separator value.

I am using the following sed, but it is returning an error:
Code:
   echo $a | sed 's/.*([\||,|:|;]).*/\1/'
   sed: command garbled: s/.*([\||,|:|;]).*/\1/

But if I execute without printing 1, it executes ok:
Code:
   echo $a | sed 's/.*([\||,|:|;]).*//'
   FirstValue|SecondValue|ThirdValue

As you can see, the separator can be: "|" "," ":" ";"

Let me know if my question is not clear.

Thanks!
# 2  
Old 03-02-2010
Hammer & Screwdriver Another approach
Code:
a='FirstVal|SecVal|ThirdVal'
b='|,:;'
echo $a | tr -cd "$b" | tr -s "$b"

When I tried this, it gave me which delimiter was used in the file.
# 3  
Old 03-02-2010
Try:

Code:
echo $a  | sed 's/[A-Za-z]*\(.\).*/\1/'

# 4  
Old 03-02-2010
Hi!

Thanks for the replies!

I was able to return the separator as you can see in the following:
Code:
a="FirstValue|SecondValue|ThirdValue"; echo $a | sed 's/.*\([\||,|:|;]\).*/\1/'
a="FirstValue,SecondValue,ThirdValue"; echo $a | sed 's/.*\([\||,|:|;]\).*/\1/'
a="FirstValue:SecondValue:ThirdValue"; echo $a | sed 's/.*\([\||,|:|;]\).*/\1/'
a="FirstValue;SecondValue;ThirdValue"; echo $a | sed 's/.*\([\||,|:|;]\).*/\1/'

Thanks again!
 
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