Question

SED replace line in file

Asked by: US-IT

Hello,
I'm trying write a simple script with sed, but can't seem to get it right. My problem is, I get comma delimted files with different records in it, and in one of the records is a field that contains a very long string which I essentially need to cut out, more aptly, trim it down to a managble size.

The sed command I have been working with is:
sed -e 's/The standard panel includes.*"/The standard Panel/g' input.csv > output.csv

However, this command wipes out the rest of the line/fields of that record. It needs to replace up to the ending quote (") then stop. Thanks in advance.

P.S. The record has the format:
99999, p, "Text, Sample", 555555555, "The standard panel includes ... ", text, more text, 2222222, text comment

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Asked On
2006-02-09 at 08:17:50ID21730307
Tags

sed

,

replace

,

line

Topic

Linux Programming

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: Tim_UtschigPosted on 2006-02-09 at 08:24:52ID: 15914033

sed -e 's/The standard panel includes[^"]\+"/The standard Panel"/gi' input.csv > output.csv

 

by: US-ITPosted on 2006-02-09 at 09:14:25ID: 15914545

Thanks for the fast reponse, but this doesn't seem to do anything. I'm assuming the i after the g is a typo. I get a sed: Command garbled if I leave it in there.

 

by: Tim_UtschigPosted on 2006-02-09 at 09:16:35ID: 15914569

The i means case insensitive.

 

by: Tim_UtschigPosted on 2006-02-09 at 09:18:18ID: 15914587

Is this not the output you'd expect?

$ echo '99999, p, "Text, Sample", 555555555, "The standard panel includes ... ", text, more text, 2222222, text comment' | sed -e 's/The standard panel includes[^"]\+"/The standard Panel"/gi'
99999, p, "Text, Sample", 555555555, "The standard Panel", text, more text, 2222222, text comment
$

 

by: US-ITPosted on 2006-02-09 at 09:22:56ID: 15914637

Yes, thats what I'm after. However, from the command you gave me:
a) If I leave the i there, I get an error
b) If I take it out, I get the original line back unchanged.

 

by: Tim_UtschigPosted on 2006-02-09 at 09:24:21ID: 15914646

sed --version

 

by: US-ITPosted on 2006-02-09 at 09:32:55ID: 15914728

Well, as usuall, I made a stupid mistake.

$ sed --version
sed --version
sed: ERROR: Illegal option -- -
usage:  sed [-ng] script [file ...]
        sed [-ng] [-e script] ... [-f script-file] ... [file ...]

Which made me dig deeper for the version, which made me realize I was ssh'd to a Sco Unix machine, not Linux. Sorry for the confusion. Can you still help me or do I need to take this over to the Unix programming page?

 

by: Tim_UtschigPosted on 2006-02-09 at 10:11:05ID: 15915056

Try this:

    sed -e 's/The standard panel includes[^"]\{1,\}"/The standard Panel"/g' input.csv > output.csv

Works on Solaris.

I'd like to know how Solaris/SCO sed users do the equivalent of GNU sed's "i" flag.

 

by: US-ITPosted on 2006-02-09 at 10:17:36ID: 15915109

Thank you very much!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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