How do I convert digits to "x"s when they have two spaces in front and
two spaces at back (or I don't want them converted) and be of varying
number of digits and maybe have a period in there somewhere (the period
must stay the same) such that (underscore character denotes space). My
"sed" knowledge isn't up to it.
__123__ becomes __xxx__
__134.5__ becomes __xxx.x__
__1__ becomes __x__
__12345.6__ becomes __xxxxx.x__
__6.44__ becomes __x.xx__
Thanks

RonaldRB,

You didn't mention wher those strings are located. Here's an example
of how you might do the conversion using only ksh93 built-ins:

print '__123__zzz__134.5__zzz
zzz__1__zzz__12345.6__
zz__6.44__z' | \
while IFS='
' read theWholeLine
do
print -r "${theWholeLine//[0-9]/x}"
done
__xxx__zzz__xxx.x__zzz
zzz__x__zzz__xxxxx.x__
zz__x.xx__z

RolandRB wrote:

How do I convert digits to "x"s when they have two spaces in front and
two spaces at back (or I don't want them converted) and be of varying
number of digits and maybe have a period in there somewhere (the period
must stay the same) such that (underscore character denotes space). My
"sed" knowledge isn't up to it.

__123__ becomes __xxx__
__134.5__ becomes __xxx.x__
__1__ becomes __x__
__12345.6__ becomes __xxxxx.x__
__6.44__ becomes __x.xx__

Thanks

Looks like you already got a sed solution from Stephane, but FYI, here's
how to do it in awk, which may be a bit more readable if you're not
proficient in sed:

$ cat repnrs.awk
function extract(str,regexp) {
RMATCH = (match(str,regexp) ? substr(str,RSTART,RLENGTH) : "")
return RSTART
}
{
while ( extract($0," [0-9]+([.][0-9]+)? ") ) {
rep = RMATCH
gsub(/[0-9]/,"x",rep)
sub(RMATCH,rep)
}
}
1
$ awk -f repnrs.awk file

Regards,

Ed.

dan.rickhoff@comcast.net wrote:

RonaldRB,

You didn't mention wher those strings are located. Here's an example
of how you might do the conversion using only ksh93 built-ins:

print '__123__zzz__134.5__zzz
zzz__1__zzz__12345.6__
zz__6.44__z' | \
while IFS='
' read theWholeLine
do
print -r "${theWholeLine//[0-9]/x}"
done
__xxx__zzz__xxx.x__zzz
zzz__x__zzz__xxxxx.x__
zz__x.xx__z

Nice try, but that'll just replace every digit no matter whether or not
it fits the desired pattern, e.g.:

$ print 'a7c' |
while IFS='
' read theWholeLine
do
print -r "${theWholeLine//[0-9]/x}"
done
axc

and please read this before posting again:

Regards,

Ed.

Michael Heiming wrote:
>>RolandRB wrote:
How do I convert digits to "x"s when they have two spaces in front and
two spaces at back (or I don't want them converted) and be of varying
number of digits and maybe have a period in there somewhere (the period
must stay the same) such that (underscore character denotes space).
<snip>

awk '{gsub("[0-9]","x",$0);print}' infile

Seems to do as fine, as least with gawk for me.

No, it doesn't restrict the replacement to just the pattern the P wants
matched.

Ed.

In perl,
$ cat conv.pl
sub f {
my $s = shift; $s =~ s/\d/x/g; return $s
}
while (1) {
if (/ [\d\.]+ /) {
print $`.f($&); s/^$`$&//
} else {
print; last
}
}

$ echo " 12.3 a1b2 foo12 3.4 5.67 " | perl -n conv.pl
xx.x a1b2 foo12 x.x 5.67

James

James wrote:
In perl,
$ cat conv.pl
sub f {
my $s = shift; $s =~ s/\d/x/g; return $s
}
while (1) {
if (/ [\d\.]+ /) {
print $`.f($&); s/^$`$&//
} else {
print; last
}
}

$ echo " 12.3 a1b2 foo12 3.4 5.67 " | perl -n conv.pl
xx.x a1b2 foo12 x.x 5.67

Ahem: notice that final 5.67 in your output

Ed.

Ed Morton wrote:

James wrote:
>
>In perl,
>$ cat conv.pl
>sub f {
>my $s = shift; $s =~ s/\d/x/g; return $s
>}
>while (1) {
>if (/ [\d\.]+ /) {
>print $`.f($&); s/^$`$&//
>} else {
>print; last
>}
>}
>>
>$ echo " 12.3 a1b2 foo12 3.4 5.67 " | perl -n conv.pl
>xx.x a1b2 foo12 x.x 5.67
>
>
Ahem: notice that final 5.67 in your output

It'll also wrongly convert " 1.2.3 " to " x.x.x ".

Ed.

Ahem: notice that final 5.67 in your output
Ed.
I did that on purpose.
Notice that there are only 3 spaces between 3.4 and 5.67. The first 2
spaces are used up by 3.4,
so 5.67 does not have 2 spaces needed for conversion.
James

James wrote:

Ahem: notice that final 5.67 in your output

Ed.

I did that on purpose.
Notice that there are only 3 spaces between 3.4 and 5.67. The first 2
spaces are used up by 3.4,
so 5.67 does not have 2 spaces needed for conversion.

Well, looks like you're on to something:

$ echo "1 2 3 4" | sed 's/ [0-9] / X /g'
1 X 3 4
$ echo "1 2 3 4" | awk 'gsub(/ [0-9] /," X ")'
1 X 3 4
$ echo "1 2 3 4" | awk '{while(gsub(/ [0-9] /," X "));}1'
1 X X 4

Wonder what the P actually wanted

Ed.

Ahem: notice that final 5.67 in your output

It'll also wrongly convert " 1.2.3 " to " x.x.x ".

Ed.

Thanks for pointing these out.

sub f {
my $s = shift; $s =~ s/\d/x/g; return $s
}
while (1) {
if (/(?<= )(\d+(\.\d*)?|\.\d+)(?= )/) {
print $`.f($&); s/^$`$&//
} else {
print; last
}
}

The RE does not use up the 2 spaces (using look-behind & look-ahead
matching).
Also I treat .67 as a valid number.

echo " 12.3 45 a1b2 foo12 3.4 89 1.6.7 " | perl -n conv.pl
xx.x 45 a1b2 foo12 3.4 xx 1.6.7

echo " 12.3 45 a1b2 foo12 3.4 89 .67 " | perl -n conv.pl
xx.x 45 a1b2 foo12 3.4 xx .xx

James

RolandRB,

RolandRB wrote:
How do I convert digits to "x"s when they have two spaces in front and
two spaces at back (or I don't want them converted) and
(underscore character denotes space)

Please clarify your requirements, should
__123__34__
convert to
__xxx__34__
or to
__123__xx__

Also, what do you mean by "or I don't want them converted"?

Thanks
Dan R.

sed -e 's/[0-9]/x/g'

StrangeRover@gmail.com wrote:
sed -e 's/[0-9]/x/g'

I think the original idea has been lost but thanks anyway. I don't want
to convert all the digits into x's. when it appears in certain
ways.

Thanks for all the responses from everyone in this thread. I couldn't
make sense of most of it so I went for an ugly solution. It appears to
be buggy but it does its job well enough. It doesn't have to be
perfect.

sed -e 's%[0-9][0-9][A-Z][A-Z][A-Z][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]%xxMTH20xx%g' \
-e 's%[0-9][0-9][A-Z][A-Z][A-Z][0-9][0-9]%xxMTHxx%g' \
-e 's%[0-9][0-9]/[0-9][0-9]/[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]%xx/xx/xxxx%g' \
-e 's%[0-9][0-9]/[0-9][0-9]/[0-9][0-9]%xx/xx/xx%g' \
-e 's%(N=[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])%(N=xxxx)%g' \
-e 's%(N=[0-9][0-9][0-9])%(N=xxx)%g' \
-e 's%(N=[0-9][0-9])%(N=xx)%g' \
-e 's%(N=[0-9])%(N=x)%g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9] ([0-9]\.[0-9]) [0-9] % xxx ( xx.x) xxx %g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9]/[0-9][0-9] ( .[0-9]\.[0-9])% xx/xx ( xx.x)%g' \
-e 's% [0-9]/[0-9][0-9] ( .[0-9]\.[0-9])% x/xx ( xx.x)%g' \
-e 's% .[0-9][0-9] ([0-9]\.[0-9])% xxx ( xx.x)%g' \
-e 's% .[0-9] ([0-9]\.[0-9])% xx ( xx.x)%g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\.[0-9] % xxxxx.x %g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\.[0-9][0-9] % xxxx.xx %g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\.[0-9] % xxxx.x %g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9]\.[0-9][0-9] % xxx.xx %g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9]\.[0-9] % xxx.x %g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9]\.[0-9][0-9] % xx.xx %g' \
-e 's% [0-9]\.[0-9][0-9] % x.xx %g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9]\.[0-9] % xx.x %g' \
-e 's% [0-9]\.[0-9] % x.x %g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9] % xxxxx %g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9] % xxxxx %g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9] % xxxx %g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9] % xxx %g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9] % xx %g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9]\.[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]% xxx.xxxx%g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9]\.[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]% xx.xxxx%g' \
-e 's% [0-9]\.[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]% x.xxxx%g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9]\.[0-9][0-9][0-9]% xxx.xxx%g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9]\.[0-9][0-9][0-9]% xx.xxx%g' \
-e 's% [0-9]\.[0-9][0-9][0-9]% x.xxx%g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9]\.[0-9][0-9]$% xxx.xx%g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9]\.[0-9][0-9]$% xx.xx%g' \
-e 's% [0-9]\.[0-9][0-9]$% x.xx%g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\.[0-9]$% xxxx.x%g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9]\.[0-9]$% xxx.x%g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9]\.[0-9]$% xx.x%g' \
-e 's% [0-9]\.[0-9]$% x.x%g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]$% xxxxx%g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]$% xxxx%g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9][0-9]$% xxx%g' \
-e 's% [0-9][0-9]$% xx%g' \
-e 's% 0\.[0-9][0-9]% x.xx%g' \
-e 's%-0\.[0-9][0-9][0-9]%-x.xxx%g' \
-e 's%(0\.[0-9][0-9][0-9]%(x.xxx%g' \
-e 's% [0-9] % x %g' $1

I assumed that the following lines (but with spaces instead of commas):

8989,,123,,z8z,,134.5,,123,,
,,000,,
-u2 -z
*,,123,,*
#,,456,,#
\n,,789,,\n
,,12,,
,,34,,
,,56,,
,,.,,
,,.123,,, ,,1.23,, ,,123.,, ,,123,,
,,123,,, ,,123.,, ,,1.23,, ,,.123,,

should convert (but with spaces instead of commas) to

8989,,xxx,,z8z,,xxx.x,,123,,
,,xxx,,
-u2 -z
*,,xxx,,*
#,,xxx,,#
\n,,xxx,,\n
,,12,,
,,34,,
,,56,,
,,.,,
,,.xxx,,, ,,x.xx,, ,,xxx.,, ,,xxx,,
,,xxx,,, ,,xxx.,, ,,x.xx,, ,,.xxx,,

Rather than restricting myself to sed, as the original poster had
suggested,, I restricted myself to using **only** ksh built-ins (i.e.,
no sed, awk, perl, tr, ). Unfortunately, my solution swelled to 66
lines of code, so I decided not to include it here. I can email it
directly to anyone who wants it.

Regards,
Dan R.