sed - How do you replace end of line with a space

pppaaarrrkkk · 04-22-2008, 07:30 AM

How do I turn :

one
two
three

into :

one two three

colucix · 04-22-2008, 07:51 AM

You don't really need sed (unless this is some kind of exercise). Just do

Code:

echo $(cat file)

pixellany · 04-22-2008, 08:01 AM

If you have a fixed number of lines, then you can do it in a one-line command. Suppose the filename is "nums":

sed 'N;N;s/\n/ /g" nums

This reads the first line, then appends two more lines (N;N

. Then it substitutes a space for each newline.

My favorite SED tutorial here: http://www.grymoire.com/Unix/Sed.html

pixellany · 04-22-2008, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colucix

You don't really need sed (unless this is some kind of exercise). Just do

Code:

echo $(cat file)

That only works if the three lines in question are the only things in the file.

ppp;
We obviously would need the most general description of what you are trying to do.

WindowBreaker · 04-22-2008, 10:01 AM

Here's your answer, replacing all newlines (\n) with a tab so you can easily see what it's doing.

Code:

sed -i ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n/\t/g' file

the "-i" is for in place editing.

Here's my explanation from a tutorial I wrote back in 2005.

Quote:

Breakdown:
; (semicolon is just a command separator within sed)
sed (The command that calls the sed program)
:a (a marker which we use to iterate over and over)
N (Appends the next line to the pattern space)
$!ba (repeats the N command for all lines but the last line)
s/\n/\t/g (replaces all occurences of the newline character with tab)

angrybanana · 04-23-2008, 01:08 PM

Code:

tr '\n' ' ' <test.txt

Code:

awk '$1=$1' ORS=' ' test.txt

EDIT: I know it's not sed, but sed might not be the best tool for this job. I'm not sure sed has a way of doing this without reading the whole file into memory.

thiyagi · 02-07-2011, 10:54 AM

its not working at all..

crts · 02-07-2011, 11:27 AM

Hi,

instead of resurrecting a nearly three year old thread and simply stating that it is not working you should start a new one. Post what you are trying to do and what you have tried so far. Post error messages if there are any and/or the result that you get with your approach.