Week-6:

a) Write a sed command that deletes the first character in each line in a file.
b) Write a sed command that deletes the character before the last character in each line in a file.
c) Write a sed command that swaps the first and second words in each line in a file.

a. Write a sed command that deletes the first character in each line in a file.
$ cat mytable
1425 Ravi 15.65
4320 Ramu 26.27
6830 Sita 36.15
1450 Raju 21.86
7820 Anil 23.34
9000 Allam 35.56
$ sed 's/^./ / ' mytable
425 Ravi 15.65
320 Ramu 26.27
830 Sita 36.15
450 Raju 21.86
820 Anil 23.34
000 Allam 35.56

b. Write a sed command that deletes the character before the last character in each
line in a file.
# Delete the last character in each line in a file.
$ sed 's/.$/ /' mytable
1425 Ravi 15.6
4320 Ramu 26.2
6830 Sita 36.1
1450 Raju 21.8
7820 Anil 23.3
9000 Allam 35.5

c. Write a sed command that swaps the first and second words in a file.
# Swaps the first and second words in each line in a file.
$ sed ‘s/ \([^ ]*\) *\([^ ]*\)/ \2 \1 /g’ mytable
Ravi 1425 15.65
Ramu 4320 26.27
Sita 6830 36.15
Raju 1450 21.86
Anil 7820 23.34
Allam 9000 35.56
DESCRIPITON
Sed is a Stream Editor used for modifying the files in unix (or linux). Whenever you want to
make changes to the file automatically, sed comes in handy to do this.
>cat file.txt
unix is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
learn operating system.
unixlinux which one you choose.
SED COMMAND EXAMPLES
1. Replacing or substituting string
Sed command is mostly used to replace the text in a file. The below simple sed command
replaces the word "unix" with "linux" in the file.
> sed 's/unix/linux/' file.txt
linux is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
learn operating system.
linuxlinux which one you choose.
Here the "s" specifies the substitution operation. The "/" are delimiters. The "unix" is the
search pattern and the "linux" is the replacement string.
By default, the sed command replaces the first occurrence of the pattern in each line and it
won't replace the second, third...occurrence in the line.

2. Replacing the nth occurrence of a pattern in a line.

Use the /1, /2 etc flags to replace the first, second occurrence of a pattern in a line. The below
command replaces the second occurrence of the word "unix" with "linux" in a line.
>sed 's/unix/linux/2' file.txt
unix is great os. linux is opensource. unix is free os.
learn operating system.
unixlinux which one you choose.

3. Replacing all the occurrence of the pattern in a line.

The substitute flag /g (global replacement) specifies the sed command to replace all the
occurrences of the string in the line.
>sed 's/unix/linux/g' file.txt
linux is great os. linux is opensource. linux is free os.
learn operating system.
linuxlinux which one you choose.

4. Replacing from nth occurrence to all occurrences in a line.

Use the combination of /1, /2 etc and /g to replace all the patterns from the nth occurrence of
a pattern in a line. The following sed command replaces the third, fourth, fifth... "unix" word
with "linux" word in a line.
>sed 's/unix/linux/3g' file.txt
unix is great os. unix is opensource. linux is free os.
learn operating system.
unixlinux which one you choose.

5. Changing the slash (/) delimiter

You can use any delimiter other than the slash. As an example if you want to change the web
url to another url as
>sed 's/http:\/\//www/' file.txt
In this case the url consists the delimiter character which we used. In that case you have to
escape the slash with backslash character, otherwise the substitution won't work.
Using too many backslashes makes the sed command look awkward. In this case we can
change the delimiter to another character as shown in the below example.
>sed 's_http://_www_' file.txt
>sed 's|http://|www|' file.txt

6. Using & as the matched string

There might be cases where you want to search for the pattern and replace that pattern by
adding some extra characters to it. In such cases & comes in handy. The & represents the
matched string.
>sed 's/unix/{&}/' file.txt
{unix} is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
learn operating system.
{unix}linux which one you choose.
>sed 's/unix/{&&}/' file.txt
{unixunix} is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
learn operating system.
{unixunix}linux which one you choose.

7. Using \1,\2 and so on to \9

The first pair of parenthesis specified in the pattern represents the \1, the second represents
the \2 and so on. The \1,\2 can be used in the replacement string to make changes to the
source string. As an example, if you want to replace the word "unix" in a line with twice as
the word like "unixunix" use the sed command as below.
>sed 's/\(unix\)/\1\1/' file.txt
unixunix is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
learn operating system.
unixunixlinux which one you choose.
The parenthesis needs to be escaped with the backslash character. Another example is if you
want to switch the words "unixlinux" as "linuxunix", the sed command is
>sed 's/\(unix\)\(linux\)/\2\1/' file.txt
unix is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
learn operating system.
linuxunix which one you choose.
Another example is switching the first three characters in a line
>sed 's/^\(.\)\(.\)\(.\)/\3\2\1/' file.txt
inux is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
aelrn operating system.
inuxlinux which one you choose.

8. Duplicating the replaced line with /p flag

The /p print flag prints the replaced line twice on the terminal. If a line does not have the
search pattern and is not replaced, then the /p prints that line only once.
>sed 's/unix/linux/p' file.txt
linux is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
linux is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
learn operating system.
linuxlinux which one you choose.
linuxlinux which one you choose.

9. Printing only the replaced lines

Use the -n option along with the /p print flag to display only the replaced lines. Here the -n
option suppresses the duplicate rows generated by the /p flag and prints the replaced lines
only one time.
>sed -n 's/unix/linux/p' file.txt
linux is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
linuxlinux which one you choose.
If you use -n alone without /p, then the sed does not print anything.
10. Running multiple sed commands.
You can run multiple sed commands by piping the output of one sed command as input to
another sed command.
>sed 's/unix/linux/' file.txt| sed 's/os/system/'
linux is great system. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
learn operating system.
linuxlinux which one you chosysteme.
Sed provides -e option to run multiple sed commands in a single sed command. The above
output can be achieved in a single sed command as shown below.
>sed -e 's/unix/linux/' -e 's/os/system/' file.txt
linux is great system. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
learn operating system.
linuxlinux which one you chosysteme.

11. Replacing string on a specific line number.

You can restrict the sed command to replace the string on a specific line number. An example
is
>sed '3 s/unix/linux/' file.txt
unix is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
learn operating system.
linuxlinux which one you choose.
The above sed command replaces the string only on the third line.

12. Replacing string on a range of lines.

You can specify a range of line numbers to the sed command for replacing a string.
>sed '1,3 s/unix/linux/' file.txt
linux is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
learn operating system.
linuxlinux which one you choose.
Here the sed command replaces the lines with range from 1 to 3. Another example is
>sed '2,$ s/unix/linux/' file.txt
linux is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
learn operating system.
linuxlinux which one you choose.
Here $ indicates the last line in the file. So the sed command replaces the text from second
line to last line in the file.
13. Replace on a lines which matches a pattern.
You can specify a pattern to the sed command to match in a line. If the pattern match occurs,
then only the sed command looks for the string to be replaced and if it finds, then the sed
command replaces the string.
>sed '/linux/ s/unix/centos/' file.txt
unix is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
learn operating system.
centoslinux which one you choose.
Here the sed command first looks for the lines which has the pattern "linux" and then replaces
the word "unix" with "centos".

14. Deleting lines.

You can delete the lines a file by specifying the line number or a range or numbers.
>sed '2 d' file.txt
>sed '5,$ d' file.txt

15. Duplicating lines

You can make the sed command to print each line of a file two times.
>sed 'p' file.txt
16. Sed as grep command
You can make sed command to work as similar to grep command.
>grep 'unix' file.txt
>sed -n '/unix/ p' file.txt
Here the sed command looks for the pattern "unix" in each line of a file and prints those lines
that has the pattern.
You can also make the sed command to work as grep -v, just by using the reversing the sed
with NOT (!).
>grep -v 'unix' file.txt
>sed -n '/unix/ !p' file.txt
The ! here inverts the pattern match.

17. Add a line after a match.

The sed command can add a new line after a pattern match is found. The "a" command to sed
tells it to add a new line after a match is found.
>sed '/unix/ a "Add a new line"' file.txt
unix is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
"Add a new line"
learn operating system.
unixlinux which one you choose.
"Add a new line"

18. Add a line before a match

The sed command can add a new line before a pattern match is found. The "i" command to
sed tells it to add a new line before a match is found.
>sed '/unix/ i "Add a new line"' file.txt
"Add a new line"
unix is great os. unix is opensource. unix is free os.
learn operating system.
"Add a new line"
unixlinux which one you choose.

19. Change a line

The sed command can be used to replace an entire line with a new line. The "c" command to
sed tells it to change the line.
>sed '/unix/ c "Change line"' file.txt
"Change line"
learn operating system.
"Change line"

20. Transform like tr command

The sed command can be used to convert the lower case letters to upper case letters by using
the transform "y" option.
>sed 'y/ul/UL/' file.txt
Unix is great os. Unix is opensoUrce. Unix is free os.
Learn operating system.
UnixLinUx which one yoU choose.
Here the sed command transforms the alphabets "ul" into their uppercase format "UL"