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I have a file with some data in this form:

Prefix text: First Name, Second Name, Third--

The prefix differs by line. The number of names varies from one to several. The suffix (-- in the example) is optional and non-alphabetic. I need to expand the comma-separated list of names into multiple lines (easy: s/,/\n/g), but in such a way that prefix and suffix (if present) surround each of the new entries:

Prefix text: First name--
Prefix text: Second name--
Prefix text: Third--

Instead of banging out a too-long python script, I thought it'd be more fun to ask if someone here can think of the perfect one-liner. Any ideas?

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  • Drive-by downvoter: If you see something wrong with the question, please clue us in. – alexis Jan 22 '14 at 14:22
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perl -lne 'if(/^(.*?: )(.*?)(\W*)$/){print"$1$_$3"for split/, /,$2}'
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  • Beautiful! Works like a charm, thanks! Right, print X for split. – alexis Jan 22 '14 at 0:24

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