I'm wondering what would be the best way (likely using grep or ack) to return lines containing unbalanced special character sets in a string? For example, if the string were:
bqM#+t1U"OyBGhk]ozVG[v"&
and the specified character were a double-quote ("), this line would not be returned. However, what I'm looking for is more complicated, requiring a left and right balance, for instance a left square parenthesis ([) and a right square parenthesis (]). Then the line would be returned if the number of ([) does not equal the number of (]) such as:
i],U2y.2<i*gZCl>y[A~a`^[
”
and 0 to 5 sets of[]
) If so, you can do it with a long and complicated regex. Otherwise you will need to write a custom program to count each and verify.][
or[] ] [ []
balanced? i.e do you need a]
to be preceded by its corresponding[
or just the number of[
s to be the same as the number of]
s?