Extracting 22-character strings from text using sed/awk?


 
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# 1  
Old 09-15-2013
Extracting 22-character strings from text using sed/awk?

Here is my task, I feel sure this can be accomplished with see/awk but can't seem to figure out how.

I have large flat file from which I need to extract every case of a pairing of characters (GG) in this case PLUS the previous 20 characters. The output should be a list (which I plan to make non-redunatant using uniq) of every 22-character string that ends in these specific 2 characters.

The input is a just flat file of just a long string of characters without line breaks (usually around 2000-10000 characters each):
Code:
OIQWEUQJDSBDSJDFIEHFOIWEHSDCNSKDHOIFUOIQWEUFOQWHFSHDFK.......

The desired output would look like this:
Code:
PONDJSYHEKSNUQFNHGSPWGG
MJAHENSUAHBEKSLRJSNHEGG
WJANAHRWOAMADUWGINDFHGG
WWJDUIANNJWEUAHSIAJFHGG
....

Any help is appreciated!

Last edited by Twinklefingers; 09-15-2013 at 02:57 PM..
# 2  
Old 09-15-2013
Can you post sample input and desired output?
# 3  
Old 09-15-2013
This will work when
a) there's only one single occurrence of GG in a line
b) there's at least 20 char in front of the GG

Code:
sed -rn 's/^.*(.{20}GG).*$/\1/p' file

In case your sed doen't allow for EREs, try
Code:
sed -n 's/^.*\(.\{20\}GG\).*$/\1/p' file

# 4  
Old 09-15-2013
@bartus11 - Added in the post, thanks!

@RudiC - There are going to be more than one instances of GG in each line, however I can prepare the files for analysis by inserting a line break after each instances of GG.
# 5  
Old 09-15-2013
Sample input for that output would be nice to have as well.
# 6  
Old 09-15-2013
Some assumptions have to made here:-
1) The flatfile is pure alpha-numeric.
2) The "GG" ALWAYS has at least 20 characters before it that are NOT those two.
3) The file is not enormous.

In this example I have deliberately inserted GGs inside the 22 character bounderies to
show the possible error that could result.
Code:
#!/bin/bash --posix
echo "1234567890qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmGGMNBVCXZLKJHGFDSAPOIUYTREWQ0987654321GG1234567890GGABCDEFGGHIJ" > /tmp/flatfile
read textfile < /tmp/flatfile
echo ""
echo "$textfile"
echo ""
for n in $( seq 0 1 ${#textfile} )
do
	if [ "${textfile:$n:2}" == "GG" ]
		then echo "${textfile:$[ ( $n - 20 ) ]:22}"
	fi
done
echo ""

And the display on OSX 10.7.5 default bash terminal:-
Code:
Last login: Sun Sep 15 18:17:17 on ttys000
AMIGA:barrywalker~> chmod 755 flatfile.sh
AMIGA:barrywalker~> ./flatfile.sh

1234567890qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmGGMNBVCXZLKJHGFDSAPOIUYTREWQ0987654321GG1234567890GGABCDEFGGHIJ

uiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmGG
POIUYTREWQ0987654321GG
87654321GG1234567890GG
GG1234567890GGABCDEFGG

AMIGA:barrywalker~> _

NOTE:- The "GG"s inside 22 characters also include earlier "GG"s!
# 7  
Old 09-15-2013
@bartus11 - Input added!

Last edited by Twinklefingers; 09-15-2013 at 03:49 PM..
 
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