Regex replace (sed or perl) with variable capture

Question

I need to do a regex capture/repalce on a file with content like the following. While I'm okay at matching things, I'm having trouble doing a capture replace.

I'd like to do the following:

Capture which will be different in every instance.
Add a new line before the copy line that references the table name.

So, for example, copy mytable( would become hello mytable\ncopy mytable(.

Sample Input

copy tablename(
        preferredid= 'c0»',
        qid= 'c0»' with null(''),
        qpi= 'c0»',
        ptid= 'c0»' with null(''))...

into '/idata2/backup/core/eq.ingres'

So how does the sample output look like? hello tablename\ncopy tablename? — fedorqui
– fedorqui, Commented Apr 1, 2014 at 13:37
s/^(?=copy tablename\()/hello mytable\n/ should do the trick. — TLP
– TLP, Commented Apr 1, 2014 at 13:40

Farvardin · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-01 13:46:37Z

2

try this :

sed 's/^copy \([^(]*\)($/hello \1\ncopy \1(/'

answered Apr 1, 2014 at 13:46

Farvardin

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1 Comment

glenn jackman Over a year ago

+1 but you can simplify a bit: sed 's/^copy $[^(]*$($/hello \1\n&/'

Miller · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-01 19:14:59Z

0

Using a perl one-liner

perl -i -pe 's/^(?=copy (\w+)\()/hello $1\n/' file

answered Apr 1, 2014 at 19:14

Miller

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