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Removing Part of a variable based on a pattern

 
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# 1  
Old 09-29-2011
Removing Part of a variable based on a pattern
Hi All,

I am writing a script to work with files in a folder.

The files are all in the following patterns (without quotes):

"some filename - NxNN - the end.YYY"

or

"some filename - NNxNN - the end.YYY"

Where N = a single number and YYY is the extension.

Basically what I want to do is put (without quotes) "some filename" into a variable, for further processing in the script. "some filename" and "the end" can be any length.

I can do it if I know in advance whether the file contains NxNN or NNxNN, but I can't figure out how to script it so that either pattern works.

e.g.

Code:
the_var=${filename% - [0-9]x[0-9][0-9] - *}

Specific example.

Files in directory :

first log - 1x05 - testing.txt
second file - 13x25 - logging.log
third from start - 3x03 - something.lst

Code:
home_dir=/Users/someone/
extracted_name=""

ls $home_dir | while read file_name
do
  ****extract start of file*****
  echo $extracted_name
done

Output should read :

first log
second file
third from start

Any ideas?
# 2  
Old 09-29-2011
It's rather simple:
Code:
$ ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r--   1 xxxx    xxxxx         0 Sep 29 16:03 first log - 1x05 - testing.txt
-rw-r--r--   1 xxxx    xxxxx         0 Sep 29 16:03 second file - 13x25 - logging.log
-rw-r--r--   1 xxxx    xxxxx         0 Sep 29 16:03 third from start - 3x03 - something.lst
$ for f in *; do printf '%s\n' "${f%% - *}"; done
first log
second file
third from start

This User Gave Thanks to radoulov For This Post:
sgtbobie
# 3  
Old 09-29-2011
Code:
$ ls *.* | nawk -F- '{print $1}'
first log
second file
third from start
$

This User Gave Thanks to jayan_jay For This Post:
sgtbobie
# 4  
Old 09-29-2011
hey, thanks guys.

I just realised I forgot something in my original post.

some files may be as such:

file name - something - NxNN - something.xxx or NNxNN

so I would need "file name - something" from that case.

and I need to feed it into a variable, as opposed to write it to the screen.
# 5  
Old 09-29-2011
The array manipulation syntax varies between shells,
this is with bash (ksh93 and zsh support that syntax too):

Code:
$ ls -1
file name - something - NNxNN - something.xxx
file name - something - NxNN - something.xxx
$ unset files
$ for f in *; do files[++i]=${f% - * - *}; done
$ printf '%s\n' "${files[@]}"
file name - something
file name - something

This User Gave Thanks to radoulov For This Post:
sgtbobie
# 6  
Old 09-29-2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by radoulov
The array manipulation syntax varies between shells,
this is with bash (ksh93 and zsh support that syntax too):

Code:
$ ls -1
file name - something - NNxNN - something.xxx
file name - something - NxNN - something.xxx
$ unset files
$ for f in *; do files[++i]=${f% - * - *}; done
$ printf '%s\n' "${files[@]}"
file name - something
file name - something

Hi, Thanks.

That does exactly the job.

I can work with them in a variable. Smilie
 
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