For example I want to change
"'this text'" "that text" 'other_text' into
'this text' "that text" 'other_text' I tried
sed -e 's/^"\'/"/g' but my quoting must be off.
Ubuntu.
- 1Probably because you forgot How to escape a single quote ?don_crissti– don_crissti2015-09-17 18:38:27 +00:00Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 18:38
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3 Answers
With GNU sed:
sed 's|\x22\x27|\x27|;s|\x27\x22|\x27|' file Output:
'this text' "that text" 'other_text'
- 1that is so Uglyctrl-alt-delor– ctrl-alt-delor2015-09-17 18:28:25 +00:00Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 18:28
- 1You gave me an idea. If you put those ugly numbers into shell variables, then you can use names i.e.
${single_quote}${double_quote}, this is readable but more characters.ctrl-alt-delor– ctrl-alt-delor2015-09-17 18:41:12 +00:00Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 18:41 -
You can not use escape \ in a '' quote. Therefore put everything in a "" quote and escape the "s. e.g. "s/^\"'/'/g"
Alternatively end the '' quote, do a \', then start the '' quote again e.g. 's/^"'\''/'\''/g'
Also if you are easily confused by the \s and /s, then note you do not have to use /s as delimiters. You can use any character, e.g. "s%^\"'%'%g"
This only does the first quote at the beginning of line, the bit you seem to be struggling on.
- actually its the second part that I'm struggling onMichael Durrant– Michael Durrant2015-09-17 19:36:33 +00:00Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 19:36
Try this line
sed -e "s/^\"'/\'/g" -e "s/'\"$/\'/g" file Instead of enclosing the sed expression between ' ', do it between " " so you can escape with \ the " "
e.g.
@tachomi:~$ echo "\"'this text'\"" "'this text'" @tachomi:~$ echo "\"'this text'\"" | sed -e "s/^\"'/\'/g" -e "s/'\"$/\'/g" 'this text' e.g.2
@tachomi:~$ cat file.txt "'this text'" "that text" 'other_text' @tachomi:~$ sed -e "s/^\"'/\'/g" -e "s/'\"$/\'/g" file.txt 'this text' "that text" 'other_text' 
- 1You can do multiple
-ein onesede.g.sed -e "s/^\"'/\'/g" -e "s/'\"$/\'/g" filectrl-alt-delor– ctrl-alt-delor2015-09-17 18:48:56 +00:00Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 18:48 - first part of answer works but second part messes up output, unexpected token messages.Michael Durrant– Michael Durrant2015-09-17 18:50:32 +00:00Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 18:50
- @MichaelDurrant Try with the updatetachomi– tachomi2015-09-17 18:52:07 +00:00Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 18:52
- @MichaelDurrant could you please provide the outputtachomi– tachomi2015-09-17 19:06:18 +00:00Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 19:06