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Old 02-05-2008, 06:25 AM   #1
sharath.bv
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Post " Regular Expression - - -help"


Hi all,

I need a regular expression for searching a string in lines which satisfies the below conditions....

1) strings containing only digits and a single lowercase alphabet
2) digits are seperated by "," symbol
3) the string must not beging and end with the alphabet

ex: 0c1,2
2,4a5,6
 
Old 02-05-2008, 07:55 AM   #2
sharath.bv
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Hi all,

Please check if the below syntax truely satisfies the given conditions...

$_=~/^[0-9]+(\,)*[a-z][0-9]+/
 
Old 02-05-2008, 07:57 AM   #3
choogendyk
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In what context are you using the regular expression? The options for regular expressions vary. They are more limited in grep than in, say, perl.

It seems that the following works in grep:

grep '\([0-9],\)\+[a-z],\([0-9],\)*[0-9]' filetosearch

However, that is the string embedded somewhere in a line. You could have a line like

a,b,c,1,2,3,a,2,3,b,c,d

and it would match. If you want to anchor it to the beginning and end of line, then

grep '^\([0-9],\)\+[a-z],\([0-9],\)*[0-9]$' filetosearch
 
Old 02-05-2008, 08:05 AM   #4
choogendyk
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sharath.bv View Post
Hi all,

Please check if the below syntax truely satisfies the given conditions...

$_=~/^[0-9]+(\,)*[a-z][0-9]+/

You must try it and see. Create a sample file with lines of text, some of which have the pattern and some of which don't. Use your search pattern and see what it finds. Then you will see that it does not meet the conditions described in your first post.

Then try mine. I think it does, but there was some slight ambiguity in your conditions. I interpreted them to mean that commas separated all the elements.
 
Old 02-05-2008, 08:06 AM   #5
pixellany
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This sounds like homework, but your posting history says maybe not....

This is the kind of thing where you have to be very careful to test all possible outcomes. For example, where can the commas be? ..between the numbers or also between the letters and numbers? Also, how many numbers are possible?

Here's one example (used with SED)

sed -r 's/[0-9],?[0-9][a-z][0-9],?[0-9]/ZZZ/g' filename (Looks for the match and replaces all instances with "ZZZ".)

Translation: match any digit, followed by optional comma, another digit, a letter, another digit, optional comma, and another digit. Add one more comma in there, or a 2-digit number and it won't match.

To match any number of digits and optional commas, things will obviously get a bit trickier. The best way to proceed is to write something simple and test it. Then keep adding to it until it behaves the way you want.
 
  


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