how to use array in sed shell command?

Question

I am trying to do a list of name:

list = a, b, c, d, e
sed "/$list/d" output_file.txt

so that lines containing those variables a,b,c,d,e would be excluded from the output_file

Anyone please help

Cyrus · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-27 17:55:30Z

4

With GNU grep:

list=(a b c d e)
(IFS="|"; grep -vE "(${list[*]})" file)

or with GNU sed:

list=(a b c d e)
(IFS="|"; sed -E "/(${list[*]})/d" file)

edited Jul 27, 2016 at 17:55

answered Jul 27, 2016 at 17:21

Cyrus

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2 Comments

Edccccch Over a year ago

It looks like the output shown on the terminal when I run the script is correct but then when I open the file that I generated with my code alone with this one it still does not exclude the list

Cyrus Over a year ago

Try this: list=(a b c d e); (IFS="|"; grep -vE "(${list[*]})" input_file > output_file)

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-27 17:22:23Z

2

You can use a BASH array to generate a regex with pipe (alternation):

list=(a b c d e) # original array

printf -v re "%s|" "${list[@]}" # genera a regex delimited by |

sed -E "/${re%|}/d" file # use sed on this regex

answered Jul 27, 2016 at 17:22

anubhava

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1 Comment

anubhava Over a year ago

To save changes inline for sed use: sed -E -i.bak "/${re%|}/d" file

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