Solutions Log » Regular Expression http://solutions.unixsherpa.com by Dan Reiland Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:28:57 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Replace Pipes with Tabs in a Delimited File http://solutions.unixsherpa.com/2009/12/04/replace-pipes-with-tabs-in-a-delimited-file/ http://solutions.unixsherpa.com/2009/12/04/replace-pipes-with-tabs-in-a-delimited-file/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:44:37 +0000 Dan http://solutions.unixsherpa.com/?p=224 Issue:
It is often necessary to replace delimiters in a file with a form the receiving party expects. sed is my favorite method of meeting the need.

Solution:
Replace double pipes with tabs

sed 's/||/           /g' file.in > file.out

Note: If you find the tab key simply does not work, try CTRL+V+I from your terminal.
Reference: http://forums.devshed.com/unix-help-35/replacing-tabs-with-spaces-372623.html

Caveats:
Special consideration (and a regex) will be required for data where delimiters are present in the data itself. Consider your use case and apply appropriately.

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