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Appending | (pipe) to end of each line which does not have it

 
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# 1  
Old 12-12-2014
Appending | (pipe) to end of each line which does not have it
I have a text file in which all records end with pipe character and newline, but a few do not have a pipe at the end.

Something like this

Code:
1|John|32|US|
2|Matt|35|UK
3|Rex|36|EU|


So in the above example the second line does not have a pipe at the end

My requirement is to append a pipe to all such lines where it is missing

i tried
Code:
sed  '/|/s/.*/&|/' filename

But this one appends a pipe to all lines irrespective of the fact that it is already present or not

Please suggest

Moderator's Comments:
Mod Comment edit by bakunin: please use CODE-tags. Thank you.
Last edited by bakunin; 12-12-2014 at 04:06 AM..
# 2  
Old 12-12-2014
Quote:
Originally Posted by abhilashnair
I have a text file in which all records end with pipe character and newline, but a few do not have a pipe at the end.

Something like this

1|John|32|US|
2|Matt|35|UK
3|Rex|36|EU|
So in the above example the second line does not have a pipe at the end
My requirement is to append a pipe to all such lines where it is missing
i tried
sed '/|/s/.*/&|/' filename
But this one appends a pipe to all lines irrespective of the fact that it is already present or not
Please suggest
Hello abhilashnair,

Kindly use code tags for commands and codes which you are using in your posts as per forum rules.
Following may help you in same.
Code:
awk '{$0=$0 ~ /\|$/?$0:$0"|"} 1'  Input_file

Output will be as follows.
Code:
1|John|32|US|
2|Matt|35|UK|
3|Rex|36|EU|

Here is the link for forum rules which may help you in understanding the rules of forum too.
https://www.unix.com/misc.php?do=cfrules

Thanks,
R. Singh
Last edited by RavinderSingh13; 12-12-2014 at 03:00 AM.. Reason: Added forum rules link now
# 3  
Old 12-12-2014
Quote:
Originally Posted by abhilashnair
Code:
sed  '/|/s/.*/&|/' filename

But this one appends a pipe to all lines irrespective of the fact that it is already present or not
In fact it appends a pipe ("s/.*/&|/" means replace a whole line with itself plus a pipe) only in lines which already contain at least one pipe character ("/|/").

Try this:

Code:
sed 's/[^|]$/&|/' /path/to/file

This reads: if there is a pattern: "not-pipe, followed by line-end" ("[^|]$") found, then replace it with itself followed by a pipe. Because the line-end is not really a character this works.

I hope this helps.

bakunin
# 4  
Old 12-12-2014
Thanks, the awk command worked for me.
# 5  
Old 12-12-2014
Hi,

One more awk command if you dont mind:

Code:
awk '{if($NF!= "|")$NF=($NF"|");print}' FS=""  OFS="" file
1|John|32|US|
2|Matt|35|UK|
3|Rex|36|EU|

# 6  
Old 12-12-2014
Quote:
Originally Posted by bakunin
In fact it appends a pipe ("s/.*/&|/" means replace a whole line with itself plus a pipe) only in lines which already contain at least one pipe character ("/|/").

Try this:

Code:
sed 's/[^|]$/&|/' /path/to/file

This reads: if there is a pattern: "not-pipe, followed by line-end" ("[^|]$") found, then replace it with itself followed by a pipe. Because the line-end is not really a character this works.

I hope this helps.

bakunin
Or, using the initial approach, search for a non-| at the end, then substitute:
Code:
sed  '/[^|]$/ s/$/|/' filename

This has even got a more efficient substitution.
 
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