I want to replaced all number with '@' symbol. I am using the below sed command , but not getting the desired result.
command -
echo "abc 434 pankaj 444" | sed 's/[0-9]*/@/g'
Result -
@a@b@c@ @ @p@a@n@k@a@j@ @
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6
Well, quite simply, [0-9]* matches strings that consist entirely of zero or more digits, include empty strings. Anything that matches an empty string, matches between any two characters, so the replacement @ is added between all letters in the input. Strings of multiple digits are replaced with one @ since the expression matches all consecutive digits at once.
So in the input string ab43 the matches to [0-9]+ are (with some whitespace added for clarity):
a b 434
^ ^ ^^^- here, a string of some digits
^ ^- here, a zero-length string
^- here, a zero-length string
Use [0-9] to match exactly one digit, or [0-9][0-9]* to match one or more (or [0-9]+ in extended regular expressions).
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then the regex pattern should replace all alphabets with '@' symbols, since alphabets has zero digits. – Pankaj Pandey Dec 3 '17 at 17:20
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@PankajPandey, should they be? Neither
[0-9]*nor[0-9]match any letters, and I thought you wanted to replace only numbers? – ilkkachu Dec 3 '17 at 17:37 -
by that logic, alphabetic characters should also be replaced by '@' since they also do not match to any of the digits. – Pankaj Pandey Dec 3 '17 at 17:38
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i just want to understand the behaviour of sed command, as I feel it's behaviour is somewhat erratic. – Pankaj Pandey Dec 3 '17 at 17:38
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You can achieve this by awk command too
echo "abc 434 pankaj 444" |awk '{gsub("[0-9]","@",$0);print $0}'
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1While true,
sedis the right tool for the job and will work given a small modification. – Mark Perryman Dec 3 '17 at 18:24
echo "abc 434 pankaj 444" | sed 's/[0-9]/@/g'– Ipor Sircer Dec 3 '17 at 16:32