So I want to get from a string like:
q='"Something, variable", another part, third one'
The part "Something, variable".
I could get
'"Something'
using ${q%%,*}.
But how could I let bash ignore commas (or other characters) within quotes?
4 Answers
echo "${q%"${q#*\"*\"}"}"
"Something, variable"
...works for just those two quotes by using the result of removing up to the second " double-quote found in $q as the literally-interpreted (read - inner-quoted) pattern string to strip from $q's tail. If two double-quotes cannot be found in $q the expansion is null.
Also, if there were any characters leading the first of these in $q they would also be retained as well, though.
so...
q='x""'
echo "${q%"${q#*\"*\"}"}"
x""
You might handle that like:
[ -z "${q##\"*}" ] || q=\"${q#*\"}
echo "$q"
""
This is pretty simple using perl is it has the Text::ParseWords parser in core:
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Text::ParseWords;
use Data::Dumper;
my $q = '"Something, variable", another part, third one';
my @words = parse_line ( ',', 0, $q );
#dump words:
print Dumper \@words;
#just output first one:
print $words[0];
Or to one-liner-ify it so you can use it inline in shell:
echo $q | perl -MText::ParseWords -e '@w=parse_line(',',0,<>);print $w[0]'
Which will read it from STDIN and print the parsed first 'word' in STDOUT.
(Or you could feed it in via $ENV{q} or similar).
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echo $q | perl -MText::ParseWords -e '@w=parse_line(",",1,<>);print $w[0]'works for me. By changing the w[0] in 1 I can get 'another part' I need.kees broeksma– kees broeksma2015-12-23 19:35:43 +00:00Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 19:35 -
Is it possible to let the multiline script print also the quotes?kees broeksma– kees broeksma2015-12-23 20:05:06 +00:00Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 20:05
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Yes. Change the 0 to 1.Sobrique– Sobrique2015-12-23 20:55:37 +00:00Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 20:55
You will have to change the Internal Field Separator: IFS
q='"Something, variable", another part, third one'
# save actual IFS
_old_ifs="${IFS}"
# set IFS to ","
IFS=","
# split q with this new IFS
set -- `echo ${q}`
# restore standard IFS
IFS="${_old_ifs}"
echo \'$1\'
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what does it do?kees broeksma– kees broeksma2015-12-23 19:40:11 +00:00Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 19:40
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What you asked for: make
bashignore commas within a quoted string.athena– athena2015-12-23 23:00:21 +00:00Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 23:00 -
@danielAzuelos Within quotes, and across all "$q".Rany Albeg Wein– Rany Albeg Wein2015-12-24 14:34:06 +00:00Commented Dec 24, 2015 at 14:34
You can pipe it through cut, specifying the double-quote character as a field delimiter and asking the just the second field be output.
$ q='"Something, variable", another part, third one'
$ echo $q | cut -d\" -f2
Something, variable
bash? Because this looks a job for a parser.echo "${q%\"*}"\".