Replace string in Shell scripting

anandjk1 · 10-19-2007, 08:53 AM

Hi,

I need to check if the starting or ending of the given string has a double quote and replace it with null.

e.g. Input
var="test string "is" string"
Output
var=test string "is" string

Please help in this regard

Thanks
Anand

angrybanana · 10-19-2007, 11:43 AM

Not sure if this is the best way of doing it, but here you go.

Code:

$ cat file
var="test string "is" string"
var2=test2 "is" also a string

$ sed 's/\([^=]*=\)"\(.*\)"$/\1\2/' file
var=test string "is" string
var2=test2 "is" also a string

edit:

awk and perl solutions:

Code:

$ awk 'BEGIN{FS=OFS="="} {gsub("\"$", "", $2);gsub("^\"", "", $2)};1' 'file'

$ perl -F'=' -lane '@F[1] =~ s/^"//;@F[1] =~ s/"$//;print join "=",@F' 'file'

ghostdog74 · 10-19-2007, 08:16 PM

assuming you only want to check starting and ending

Code:

#var='"test string "is" string"'
#echo $var|awk 'BEGIN{FS=""}$1=="\""&&$NF=="\""{print substr($0,2,NF-2)}'
test string "is" string