Delete character/insert character in a string

Question

I need to delete or replace the third ":" (colon) with a space. I can't do it at a certain index because the entries differ in length.

u:Testuser:rw:/home/user1/temp
g:Testgroup:-:/home/user2/temp

Result should look like this:

u:Testuser:rw /home/user1/temp
g:Testgroup:- /home/user2/temp

Is there a way to 1) delete a specific character and 2) to insert a character before/after a specific character? I couldn´t find a solution, I am a beginner unfortunately.

This could easily be done with bash string manipulation. Or through awk. Or even sed. — Aserre
– Aserre, Commented Jan 4, 2019 at 16:38
I dont know how to tell the script to delete/insert at the third colon. — d0neall
– d0neall, Commented Jan 4, 2019 at 16:45

d0neall · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-04 17:09:14Z

2

Thanks for the answer, I did it myself

g:Testgroup:-:/home/user2/temp | sed s/':'/' '/3

answered Jan 4, 2019 at 17:09

d0neall

818 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Geno Chen · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-04 16:55:23Z

0

A dirty solution:

$ cat 54042857.txt
u:Testuser:rw:/home/user1/temp
g:Testgroup:-:/home/user2/temp

$ awk -F ':' ' { print $1":"$2":"$3" "$4 } ' 54042857.txt 
u:Testuser:rw /home/user1/temp
g:Testgroup:- /home/user2/temp

answered Jan 4, 2019 at 16:55

Geno Chen

5,2346 gold badges24 silver badges47 bronze badges

Comments

mickp · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-04 21:59:27Z

0

Using parameter expansion:

$ foo='u:Testuser:rw:/home/user1/temp'
$ printf '%s\n' "${foo%":${foo#*:*:*:}"} ${foo#*:*:*:}"
u:Testuser:rw /home/user1/temp

answered Jan 4, 2019 at 21:59

mickp

1,85213 silver badges27 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Delete character/insert character in a string

3 Answers 3

Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related