Replicate a column in a one-line CSV file

Question

I have a file that consists of a single line:

a,x,b,c,d,e 

I want to convert this into

a,x,b,x,c,x,d,x,e,x

Which is the easiest way to achieve this? A solution based on Python will be most helpful

Also supposing that this file is a csv file will python make the work easier?

Answer 1

Python

#!/usr/bin/env python

from sys import stdin

for line in stdin:
    parts = line.split(',')
    glue = parts.pop(1)
    print(',{0},'.format(glue).join(parts) + ',' + glue)

Answer 2

Using sed:

echo 'a,x,b,c,d,e' | sed 's/,\([^x]\)/,\1,x/g'

Answer 3

sed 's/,x,/,/g;s/[^,]*/&,x/g'

Answer 4

I assume that your data is not actually what you show and instead, you want to repeat the 2nd column of a csv file, whatever that column may be, not only if it is an x. If so, these should work:

$ echo "a,x,b,c,d,e" | 
    perl -lpe 's/^(.+?),([^,]+)/$1/; $n=$2; s/([^,]+)/$1,$n/g; '
a,x,b,x,c,x,d,x,e,x

And in awk:

$ echo "a,x,b,c,d,e" | 
    awk -F, '{k=$1","$2","$3; for(i=4;i<=NF; i++){k=k","$2","$(i)} 
              print k","$2}'
a,x,b,x,c,x,d,x,e,x

Answer 5

A Perl way:

echo "a,x,b,c,d,e" |
 perl -lpe '@_= map { $_ => "x" } grep !/x/, split /,/,;$_=join ",",@_;'
a,x,b,x,c,x,d,x,e,x