Gnu Sed: Space Character class not matching for end of line character
Clash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP
Pattern: abc followed by space or is the last character in a line.
orig="abc[[:space:]]+";
new=Hello
sed -i -r -e "s|$orig|$new|g" ./file ;
File:
abc
abcd
abc
abc d
After executing:
abc
abcd
abc
Hellod
Expected Output:
Hello
abcd
Hello
Hello d
What am I missing?
Note: I want to preserve the space character.
text-processing sed gnu whitespace
edited Dec 11 at 0:00
Jeff Schaller
38.3k1053125
asked Dec 10 at 23:25
Nikhil
24319
add a comment |
Pattern: abc followed by space or is the last character in a line.
orig="abc[[:space:]]+";
new=Hello
sed -i -r -e "s|$orig|$new|g" ./file ;
File:
abc
abcd
abc
abc d
After executing:
abc
abcd
abc
Hellod
Expected Output:
Hello
abcd
Hello
Hello d
What am I missing?
Note: I want to preserve the space character.
text-processing sed gnu whitespace
edited Dec 11 at 0:00
Jeff Schaller
38.3k1053125
asked Dec 10 at 23:25
Nikhil
24319
I noticed that you said "Pattern: abc followed by space or is the last character in a line" but then showedabc dbeing translated toHellodwhen "abc(space)" was not the end of line --dis. Which rule is correct?abc(spaces)orabc(spaces)(end of line)?
– Jeff Schaller
Dec 11 at 0:37
1
Perhaps what you are looking for is a word boundary anchor?s/abcb/Hello/or (GNU sed)s/abc>/Hello/
– steeldriver
Dec 11 at 0:47
add a comment |
Pattern: abc followed by space or is the last character in a line.
orig="abc[[:space:]]+";
new=Hello
sed -i -r -e "s|$orig|$new|g" ./file ;
File:
abc
abcd
abc
abc d
After executing:
abc
abcd
abc
Hellod
Expected Output:
Hello
abcd
Hello
Hello d
What am I missing?
Note: I want to preserve the space character.
text-processing sed gnu whitespace
edited Dec 11 at 0:00
Jeff Schaller
38.3k1053125
asked Dec 10 at 23:25
Nikhil
24319
Pattern: abc followed by space or is the last character in a line.
orig="abc[[:space:]]+";
new=Hello
sed -i -r -e "s|$orig|$new|g" ./file ;
File:
abc
abcd
abc
abc d
After executing:
abc
abcd
abc
Hellod
Expected Output:
Hello
abcd
Hello
Hello d
What am I missing?
Note: I want to preserve the space character.
text-processing sed gnu whitespace
text-processing sed gnu whitespace
edited Dec 11 at 0:00
Jeff Schaller
38.3k1053125
asked Dec 10 at 23:25
Nikhil
24319
edited Dec 11 at 0:00
Jeff Schaller
38.3k1053125
asked Dec 10 at 23:25
Nikhil
24319
edited Dec 11 at 0:00
Jeff Schaller
38.3k1053125
edited Dec 11 at 0:00
Jeff Schaller
38.3k1053125
edited Dec 11 at 0:00
Jeff Schaller
38.3k1053125
38.3k1053125
asked Dec 10 at 23:25
Nikhil
24319
asked Dec 10 at 23:25
Nikhil
24319
asked Dec 10 at 23:25
Nikhil
24319
24319
I noticed that you said "Pattern: abc followed by space or is the last character in a line" but then showedabc dbeing translated toHellodwhen "abc(space)" was not the end of line --dis. Which rule is correct?abc(spaces)orabc(spaces)(end of line)?
– Jeff Schaller
Dec 11 at 0:37
1
Perhaps what you are looking for is a word boundary anchor?s/abcb/Hello/or (GNU sed)s/abc>/Hello/
– steeldriver
Dec 11 at 0:47
add a comment |
I noticed that you said "Pattern: abc followed by space or is the last character in a line" but then showedabc dbeing translated toHellodwhen "abc(space)" was not the end of line --dis. Which rule is correct?abc(spaces)orabc(spaces)(end of line)?
– Jeff Schaller
Dec 11 at 0:37
1
Perhaps what you are looking for is a word boundary anchor?s/abcb/Hello/or (GNU sed)s/abc>/Hello/
– steeldriver
Dec 11 at 0:47
I noticed that you said "Pattern: abc followed by space or is the last character in a line" but then showed
abc d being translated to Hellod when "abc(space)" was not the end of line -- d is. Which rule is correct? abc(spaces) or abc(spaces)(end of line)?– Jeff Schaller
Dec 11 at 0:37
I noticed that you said "Pattern: abc followed by space or is the last character in a line" but then showed
abc d being translated to Hellod when "abc(space)" was not the end of line -- d is. Which rule is correct? abc(spaces) or abc(spaces)(end of line)?– Jeff Schaller
Dec 11 at 0:37
1
1
Perhaps what you are looking for is a word boundary anchor?
s/abcb/Hello/ or (GNU sed) s/abc>/Hello/– steeldriver
Dec 11 at 0:47
Perhaps what you are looking for is a word boundary anchor?
s/abcb/Hello/ or (GNU sed) s/abc>/Hello/– steeldriver
Dec 11 at 0:47
add a comment |
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
If what you want is to preserve spaces:
Note: I want to preserve the space character.
Then, match them, but restore them on the replacement:
orig='abc([[:space:]]+)'
new='Hello1'
sed -E -e "s|$orig|$new|g" ./infile ;
That will generate this output (to modify in-place add the appropriate -i option):
Hello
abcd
Hello
Hello d
Of course, that is assuming the file had some spaces at the end of some lines:
$ cat infile | sed -n l
abc $
abcd $
abc $
$
abc d$
If you also need that the regex match lines that do not end on spaces, you need a more complex regex:
orig='abc([[:space:]]+|$)';
new='Hello1';
sed -E -e "s,$orig,$new,g" ./infile ;
Of course, the s||| delimiter had to be changed to s,,, to avoid conflicts with the | required by the regex for alternative.
answered Dec 11 at 6:43
Isaac
11k11648
Why do we have to add|$? According to sed, a stream editor: Character Classes and Bracket Expressions : Space characters: in the ‘C’ locale, this is tab, newline, vertical tab, form feed, carriage return, and space.
– Nikhil
Dec 11 at 8:55
1
(1) I tried to match your words: space or is the last character in a line. The only way to tell a regex to match the end of a line is$, no other. The syntax fo anoris|, so that is what I wrote. IF you meant: several spaces or none, the regex would have beenabc([[:space:]]*$), no|needed, but the end of line is still required. (Cont...) @Nikhil
– Isaac
Dec 11 at 9:07
1
(2) There is no way to match a newline in grep (BRE, ERE or most pcre without a-zoption used). That is also said ininfo grep: Since newline is also a separator for the list of patterns, there is no way to match newline characters in a text. So, the character range may (in some OSes) match a newline but there is never a newline to match in most grep text (exception noted above withgrep -Pzor some other corner case uses). @Nikhil
– Isaac
Dec 11 at 9:08
add a comment |
Instead of matching, capturing and then re-inserting the whitespace, just look for "abc" as a standalone word. With GNU sed, use < and > as word boundaries:
sed 's/<abc>/Hello/g' file
Hello
abcd
Hello
Hello d
If you want to put the pattern and replacement into variables, you just have to be careful to quote the backslashes appropriately.
pattern="\<abc\>" # or: pattern='<abc>'
replacement=Hello
sed "s/$pattern/$replacement/" file
answered Dec 11 at 18:35
glenn jackman
50.1k569106
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function()
var channelOptions =
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "106"
;
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
createEditor();
);
else
createEditor();
);
function createEditor()
StackExchange.prepareEditor(
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader:
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
,
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
);
);
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f487234%2fgnu-sed-space-character-class-not-matching-for-end-of-line-character%23new-answer', 'question_page');
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
If what you want is to preserve spaces:
Note: I want to preserve the space character.
Then, match them, but restore them on the replacement:
orig='abc([[:space:]]+)'
new='Hello1'
sed -E -e "s|$orig|$new|g" ./infile ;
That will generate this output (to modify in-place add the appropriate -i option):
Hello
abcd
Hello
Hello d
Of course, that is assuming the file had some spaces at the end of some lines:
$ cat infile | sed -n l
abc $
abcd $
abc $
$
abc d$
If you also need that the regex match lines that do not end on spaces, you need a more complex regex:
orig='abc([[:space:]]+|$)';
new='Hello1';
sed -E -e "s,$orig,$new,g" ./infile ;
Of course, the s||| delimiter had to be changed to s,,, to avoid conflicts with the | required by the regex for alternative.
answered Dec 11 at 6:43
Isaac
11k11648
Why do we have to add|$? According to sed, a stream editor: Character Classes and Bracket Expressions : Space characters: in the ‘C’ locale, this is tab, newline, vertical tab, form feed, carriage return, and space.
– Nikhil
Dec 11 at 8:55
1
(1) I tried to match your words: space or is the last character in a line. The only way to tell a regex to match the end of a line is$, no other. The syntax fo anoris|, so that is what I wrote. IF you meant: several spaces or none, the regex would have beenabc([[:space:]]*$), no|needed, but the end of line is still required. (Cont...) @Nikhil
– Isaac
Dec 11 at 9:07
1
(2) There is no way to match a newline in grep (BRE, ERE or most pcre without a-zoption used). That is also said ininfo grep: Since newline is also a separator for the list of patterns, there is no way to match newline characters in a text. So, the character range may (in some OSes) match a newline but there is never a newline to match in most grep text (exception noted above withgrep -Pzor some other corner case uses). @Nikhil
– Isaac
Dec 11 at 9:08
add a comment |
If what you want is to preserve spaces:
Note: I want to preserve the space character.
Then, match them, but restore them on the replacement:
orig='abc([[:space:]]+)'
new='Hello1'
sed -E -e "s|$orig|$new|g" ./infile ;
That will generate this output (to modify in-place add the appropriate -i option):
Hello
abcd
Hello
Hello d
Of course, that is assuming the file had some spaces at the end of some lines:
$ cat infile | sed -n l
abc $
abcd $
abc $
$
abc d$
If you also need that the regex match lines that do not end on spaces, you need a more complex regex:
orig='abc([[:space:]]+|$)';
new='Hello1';
sed -E -e "s,$orig,$new,g" ./infile ;
Of course, the s||| delimiter had to be changed to s,,, to avoid conflicts with the | required by the regex for alternative.
answered Dec 11 at 6:43
Isaac
11k11648
Why do we have to add|$? According to sed, a stream editor: Character Classes and Bracket Expressions : Space characters: in the ‘C’ locale, this is tab, newline, vertical tab, form feed, carriage return, and space.
– Nikhil
Dec 11 at 8:55
1
(1) I tried to match your words: space or is the last character in a line. The only way to tell a regex to match the end of a line is$, no other. The syntax fo anoris|, so that is what I wrote. IF you meant: several spaces or none, the regex would have beenabc([[:space:]]*$), no|needed, but the end of line is still required. (Cont...) @Nikhil
– Isaac
Dec 11 at 9:07
1
(2) There is no way to match a newline in grep (BRE, ERE or most pcre without a-zoption used). That is also said ininfo grep: Since newline is also a separator for the list of patterns, there is no way to match newline characters in a text. So, the character range may (in some OSes) match a newline but there is never a newline to match in most grep text (exception noted above withgrep -Pzor some other corner case uses). @Nikhil
– Isaac
Dec 11 at 9:08
add a comment |
If what you want is to preserve spaces:
Note: I want to preserve the space character.
Then, match them, but restore them on the replacement:
orig='abc([[:space:]]+)'
new='Hello1'
sed -E -e "s|$orig|$new|g" ./infile ;
That will generate this output (to modify in-place add the appropriate -i option):
Hello
abcd
Hello
Hello d
Of course, that is assuming the file had some spaces at the end of some lines:
$ cat infile | sed -n l
abc $
abcd $
abc $
$
abc d$
If you also need that the regex match lines that do not end on spaces, you need a more complex regex:
orig='abc([[:space:]]+|$)';
new='Hello1';
sed -E -e "s,$orig,$new,g" ./infile ;
Of course, the s||| delimiter had to be changed to s,,, to avoid conflicts with the | required by the regex for alternative.
answered Dec 11 at 6:43
Isaac
11k11648
If what you want is to preserve spaces:
Note: I want to preserve the space character.
Then, match them, but restore them on the replacement:
orig='abc([[:space:]]+)'
new='Hello1'
sed -E -e "s|$orig|$new|g" ./infile ;
That will generate this output (to modify in-place add the appropriate -i option):
Hello
abcd
Hello
Hello d
Of course, that is assuming the file had some spaces at the end of some lines:
$ cat infile | sed -n l
abc $
abcd $
abc $
$
abc d$
If you also need that the regex match lines that do not end on spaces, you need a more complex regex:
orig='abc([[:space:]]+|$)';
new='Hello1';
sed -E -e "s,$orig,$new,g" ./infile ;
Of course, the s||| delimiter had to be changed to s,,, to avoid conflicts with the | required by the regex for alternative.
answered Dec 11 at 6:43
Isaac
11k11648
answered Dec 11 at 6:43
Isaac
11k11648
answered Dec 11 at 6:43
Isaac
11k11648
answered Dec 11 at 6:43
Isaac
11k11648
11k11648
Why do we have to add|$? According to sed, a stream editor: Character Classes and Bracket Expressions : Space characters: in the ‘C’ locale, this is tab, newline, vertical tab, form feed, carriage return, and space.
– Nikhil
Dec 11 at 8:55
1
(1) I tried to match your words: space or is the last character in a line. The only way to tell a regex to match the end of a line is$, no other. The syntax fo anoris|, so that is what I wrote. IF you meant: several spaces or none, the regex would have beenabc([[:space:]]*$), no|needed, but the end of line is still required. (Cont...) @Nikhil
– Isaac
Dec 11 at 9:07
1
(2) There is no way to match a newline in grep (BRE, ERE or most pcre without a-zoption used). That is also said ininfo grep: Since newline is also a separator for the list of patterns, there is no way to match newline characters in a text. So, the character range may (in some OSes) match a newline but there is never a newline to match in most grep text (exception noted above withgrep -Pzor some other corner case uses). @Nikhil
– Isaac
Dec 11 at 9:08
add a comment |
Why do we have to add|$? According to sed, a stream editor: Character Classes and Bracket Expressions : Space characters: in the ‘C’ locale, this is tab, newline, vertical tab, form feed, carriage return, and space.
– Nikhil
Dec 11 at 8:55
1
(1) I tried to match your words: space or is the last character in a line. The only way to tell a regex to match the end of a line is$, no other. The syntax fo anoris|, so that is what I wrote. IF you meant: several spaces or none, the regex would have beenabc([[:space:]]*$), no|needed, but the end of line is still required. (Cont...) @Nikhil
– Isaac
Dec 11 at 9:07
1
(2) There is no way to match a newline in grep (BRE, ERE or most pcre without a-zoption used). That is also said ininfo grep: Since newline is also a separator for the list of patterns, there is no way to match newline characters in a text. So, the character range may (in some OSes) match a newline but there is never a newline to match in most grep text (exception noted above withgrep -Pzor some other corner case uses). @Nikhil
– Isaac
Dec 11 at 9:08
Why do we have to add
|$? According to sed, a stream editor: Character Classes and Bracket Expressions : Space characters: in the ‘C’ locale, this is tab, newline, vertical tab, form feed, carriage return, and space.– Nikhil
Dec 11 at 8:55
Why do we have to add
|$? According to sed, a stream editor: Character Classes and Bracket Expressions : Space characters: in the ‘C’ locale, this is tab, newline, vertical tab, form feed, carriage return, and space.– Nikhil
Dec 11 at 8:55
1
1
(1) I tried to match your words: space or is the last character in a line. The only way to tell a regex to match the end of a line is
$, no other. The syntax fo an or is |, so that is what I wrote. IF you meant: several spaces or none, the regex would have been abc([[:space:]]*$), no | needed, but the end of line is still required. (Cont...) @Nikhil– Isaac
Dec 11 at 9:07
(1) I tried to match your words: space or is the last character in a line. The only way to tell a regex to match the end of a line is
$, no other. The syntax fo an or is |, so that is what I wrote. IF you meant: several spaces or none, the regex would have been abc([[:space:]]*$), no | needed, but the end of line is still required. (Cont...) @Nikhil– Isaac
Dec 11 at 9:07
1
1
(2) There is no way to match a newline in grep (BRE, ERE or most pcre without a
-z option used). That is also said in info grep: Since newline is also a separator for the list of patterns, there is no way to match newline characters in a text. So, the character range may (in some OSes) match a newline but there is never a newline to match in most grep text (exception noted above with grep -Pz or some other corner case uses). @Nikhil– Isaac
Dec 11 at 9:08
(2) There is no way to match a newline in grep (BRE, ERE or most pcre without a
-z option used). That is also said in info grep: Since newline is also a separator for the list of patterns, there is no way to match newline characters in a text. So, the character range may (in some OSes) match a newline but there is never a newline to match in most grep text (exception noted above with grep -Pz or some other corner case uses). @Nikhil– Isaac
Dec 11 at 9:08
add a comment |
Instead of matching, capturing and then re-inserting the whitespace, just look for "abc" as a standalone word. With GNU sed, use < and > as word boundaries:
sed 's/<abc>/Hello/g' file
Hello
abcd
Hello
Hello d
If you want to put the pattern and replacement into variables, you just have to be careful to quote the backslashes appropriately.
pattern="\<abc\>" # or: pattern='<abc>'
replacement=Hello
sed "s/$pattern/$replacement/" file
answered Dec 11 at 18:35
glenn jackman
50.1k569106
add a comment |
Instead of matching, capturing and then re-inserting the whitespace, just look for "abc" as a standalone word. With GNU sed, use < and > as word boundaries:
sed 's/<abc>/Hello/g' file
Hello
abcd
Hello
Hello d
If you want to put the pattern and replacement into variables, you just have to be careful to quote the backslashes appropriately.
pattern="\<abc\>" # or: pattern='<abc>'
replacement=Hello
sed "s/$pattern/$replacement/" file
answered Dec 11 at 18:35
glenn jackman
50.1k569106
add a comment |
Instead of matching, capturing and then re-inserting the whitespace, just look for "abc" as a standalone word. With GNU sed, use < and > as word boundaries:
sed 's/<abc>/Hello/g' file
Hello
abcd
Hello
Hello d
If you want to put the pattern and replacement into variables, you just have to be careful to quote the backslashes appropriately.
pattern="\<abc\>" # or: pattern='<abc>'
replacement=Hello
sed "s/$pattern/$replacement/" file
answered Dec 11 at 18:35
glenn jackman
50.1k569106
Instead of matching, capturing and then re-inserting the whitespace, just look for "abc" as a standalone word. With GNU sed, use < and > as word boundaries:
sed 's/<abc>/Hello/g' file
Hello
abcd
Hello
Hello d
If you want to put the pattern and replacement into variables, you just have to be careful to quote the backslashes appropriately.
pattern="\<abc\>" # or: pattern='<abc>'
replacement=Hello
sed "s/$pattern/$replacement/" file
answered Dec 11 at 18:35
glenn jackman
50.1k569106
answered Dec 11 at 18:35
glenn jackman
50.1k569106
answered Dec 11 at 18:35
glenn jackman
50.1k569106
answered Dec 11 at 18:35
glenn jackman
50.1k569106
50.1k569106
add a comment |
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to Unix & Linux Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.
Please pay close attention to the following guidance:
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f487234%2fgnu-sed-space-character-class-not-matching-for-end-of-line-character%23new-answer', 'question_page');
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
I noticed that you said "Pattern: abc followed by space or is the last character in a line" but then showed
abc dbeing translated toHellodwhen "abc(space)" was not the end of line --dis. Which rule is correct?abc(spaces)orabc(spaces)(end of line)?– Jeff Schaller
Dec 11 at 0:37
1
Perhaps what you are looking for is a word boundary anchor?
s/abcb/Hello/or (GNU sed)s/abc>/Hello/– steeldriver
Dec 11 at 0:47