I am trying to replace strings in a document that enclosed in single quotes, to a string without.
'test' -> test
Is there a way using sed I can do this?
Thanks
Add a comment
|
3 Answers
This will remove single quotes from around any quoted word, and leave other quotes alone:
sed -E "s/'([a-zA-Z]*)'/\1/g"
When tested:
foo 'bar' it's 'OK' --> foo bar it's OK
Notice that it left the quote in it's intact.
Explanation:
The search regex '([a-zA-Z]*)' is matching any word (letters, no spaces) surrounded by quotes and using brackets, it captures the word within. The replacement regex \1 refers to "group 1" - the first captured group (ie the bracketed group in the search pattern - the word)
FYI, here's the test:
echo "foo 'bar' it's 'OK'" | sed -E "s/'([a-zA-Z]*)'/\1/g"
Comments
removing single quotes for certain word (text in your example):
kent$ echo "foo'text'000'bar'"|sed "s/'text'/text/g"
footext000'bar'
1 Comment
glenn jackman
can be a bit DRYer: `sed "s/'(test)'/\1/g"
How about this?
$> cat foo
"test"
"bar"
baz "blub"
"one" "two" three
$> cat foo | sed -e 's/\"//g'
test
bar
baz blub
one two three
Update As you only want to replace "test", it would more likely be:
$> cat foo | sed -e 's/\"test\"/test/g'
test
"bar"
baz "blub"
"one" "two" three
3 Comments
terrid25
I don't want to find every single place where the quotes are though. Just around one word, which is 'test'
BjoernD
Ah. That wasn't clear from your question. I'll edit my answer
glenn jackman
@terrid25, really important to put these details in the question, not buried in comments. Please edit your question.