Convert octal to character

stepic · 04-10-2008, 01:56 AM

I would like to convert octal numbers to characters.

Here it is a word 'order':
\157\162\144\145\162

When I run in command line:
echo -e "\157\162\144\145\162"
will print order.

I tried with this command:
echo "\157\162\144\145\162" | sed "s/$[\\][0-9][0-9][0-9]$/`echo -e \\\1`/g"
This print \157\162\144\145\162.

Then I tried to convert the string with echo -e but it doesn't work:
echo "\157\162\144\145\162" | sed "s/$[\\][0-9][0-9][0-9]$/`echo -e \\\1`/g"
This will print 11111.

What I am doing wrong?
Thank you.

Agrouf · 04-10-2008, 03:41 AM

$ printf "\157\162\144\145\162"
order

stepic · 04-10-2008, 04:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agrouf

$ printf "\157\162\144\145\162"
order

The octal chars are in a file eg test_file.py
I need to convert all octals them using a command like:
sed "s/$[\\][0-9][0-9][0-9]$/`echo -e \\\1`/g" test_file.py

But the echo after sed it doesn't work. Neither printf.

Thank you.

Agrouf · 04-10-2008, 06:53 AM

What about:

Code:

while read line
do
   eval "printf \"$line\""
done < test_file.py

Anyway, the `echo -e \\\1` will not work with because it is replaced by the shell before the sed command is executed.
In other words, `echo -e \\\1' is sctricly equivalent to \1 and so in your sed command you replace something with exactly the same thing.

stepic · 04-10-2008, 11:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agrouf

What about:

Code:

while read line
do
   eval "printf \"$line\""
done < test_file.py

Anyway, the `echo -e \\\1` will not work with because it is replaced by the shell before the sed command is executed.
In other words, `echo -e \\\1' is sctricly equivalent to \1 and so in your sed command you replace something with exactly the same thing.

You're right and thanks for the idea, I'll try it.

berbae · 04-11-2008, 04:49 AM

Hello stepic
The Agrouf solution doesn't seem to work, so I propose another one which works on my machine :

Code:

printf "$(cat test_file.py)\n"

This works for octal coded characters of the form \NNN, not \0NNN.
To use that other form, replace 'printf' by 'echo -e' (without the quotes).
Hope that solve your problem.
Bye.

stepic · 04-12-2008, 01:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by berbae

Code:

printf "$(cat test_file.py)\n"

Hi berbae,

I've tried the above solution and that's perfect.

Thank you very much!