Categorically speaking, when I run into complex tasks like these, I (now...) instinctively turn to the Perl programming-language.

My essential point, though, is that you should turn to some "programming language." Perl, Python, PHP, and Ruby are all probably within easy reach. You can write a command-line script in any of these, just as easily as you can any shell-script, and no one will know or care exactly how you did it.

"Shell scripting" is a great resource, but I think it's best "in small doses." It is only one of the guns in your holster, and really it's the least one.

The Perl folks like to say "TMTOWTDI = There's More Than One Way To Do It," and while they sometimes carry that thought to an extreme there is a lot of truth to it. Linux/Unix gives you an uncommonly-rich programming environment vis-a-vis "You Know Who." It is well worth your time to explore the full extent of just what has been exciting computer-programmers since the 1970's...

The shell? :}

Perl has only been around since '87



Cheers,
Tink

I moved the post at the request of the poster.

The first one prints just an empty row.
The second one just prints 'A' on a new row.

By adding an additional pipe with command

to the huge command string that I've made earlier, it seems to be working. Is there any way I could implement the y-thingie to the existing sed that handles the other part, or is the new pipe with the new sed above the only way?

You've demonstrated that your system WILL translate the characters using the tr command. Just tack those characters to the end of the string1 (from) and string2 (to) arguments.

Alternatively, you can add another expression to your existing sed:

sed -e expr1 -e expr2

you already have expr1, just add the -e's and add your second expression.

Alright, it appears that tr indeed does translation.
It translates, however, every desired character twice. Eg:

echo Ö | tr 'Ö' 'O'

becomes: OO

This only happens to special Swedish characters.

Sed option, on the other hand, works like a charm. But I think I'll let you go now guys. You've been more than helpful!
Thank you!

You can also include different sed commands in the string separated by semicolons.

sed 'expr1;expr2;expr3' file