extract string

[Jon maddog Hall]

p.lussier at comcast.net said:
>> While the following line intended to remove quotes does NOT work:
>> grep univ abc.txt | cut -f3 -d, | sed s/\"//g >> dev.txt
>> It resulted in a line starts with ">" prompt, and not output dev.txt

> I can't see any reason why what state should be happening.  As a matter of
> fact, I tried that exact command line on my system and it worked exactly as
> (specified|advertised|expected). 

Might this not be affected by different command interpreters?  sh vs csh vs ksh
vs bash?


>Simplest by what measurement?

> - fewest processes spawned
> - most efficient
> - least amount of typing
> - easiest to remember
> - easiest to understand
> - ability to debug
> - extensibility

Most portable?

drew.vanzandt at gmail.com said:
> While it does seem like a few man page pointers would be better (more
> instructive in the long run), I have to admit I wasn't familiar with cut, so
> I've learned something from this one. 

I still remember the time that I first was learning UNIX (all capital letters)...

I was the senior systems administrator for Bell Labs in North Andover, MA.  I
got the job without ever having seen a UNIX system.  Of course I had programmed
on dozens of different OS systems....but there I was, late at night, trying
to solve much the same type of problem that was solved here.

After thinking about it, and wondering if I would have to write a program
to do it, I thought to myself..."I do not KNOW that UNIX has a command that
could do this, but I am willing to BET it does."  And I started paging through
section 1 of the manual.....the shell commands.  Sure enough, I came to "cut(1)"
and it was exactly what I needed.  (Later on I was glad the command was not
at the back of the section, being named something like "Yet Another Cut
Command".....hmmm....maybe in a way it was....) :-}

It was that experience that led me to page through section (1) of the manual
every six months, just to remind myself of the gold that was hidden in those
pages.

Warmest regards,

maddog
-- 
Jon "maddog" Hall
Executive Director           Linux International(R)
email: maddog at li.org         80 Amherst St. 
Voice: +1.603.672.4557       Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A.
WWW: http://www.li.org

Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association

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