Need to split string on single quote as delimiter

I have a variable that contains the following string:

FPATH=-rw-rw-r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug  7 13:14 /app/F11.3/app/cust/exe/filename1.exe'  -rw-rw-r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug 19 10:09 /app/app/F11.3/app/cust/sql/33211.sql'  -rw-r--r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug  6 17:20 /app/F11.2/app/01/mrt/file1.mrt' 

I need to split the string based on single quote as delimiter print as below:

Desired Output:

-rw-rw-r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug  7 13:14 /app/F11.3/app/cust/exe/filename1.exe  
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug 19 10:09 /app/app/F11.3/app/cust/sql/33211.sql
-rw-r--r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug  6 17:20 /app/F11.2/app/01/mrt/file1.mrt

Below is what I tried but it does not work:

#a=($(echo $FPATH | tr '/'' "\n"))
a=(`echo $FPATH | sed 's/'/\n/g'`)

   for i in "${a[@]}"
do
   printf "ARRAY3:$i"
done

Can you please suggest why is it breaking and how can i get it to work ?

Your sed is not quoted properly.

Try tr , which is used for such manipulation, with sed to remove blank begining of line.

echo $FPATH | tr "'" "\n" | sed "s/^ //g"

Also, you must enclose the content of FPATH variable in double quotes to work.

Please, specify operating system and shell in your future posts.

Hope that helps.
Regards
Peasant.

FPATH gets the string by reading it from a file hello.txt.

input="./hello.txt"
while IFS= read -r line
do
  echo "$line"
IFS=': ' read -r ip string <<< "$line"

Below is how I tried your suggestion.

a=`echo $FPATH | tr "'" "\n" | sed "s/^ //g"`
   for i in "${a[@]}"
do
   printf '$i' >> output.txt
done

However, due to single quotes printf '$i' we get the output which is enclosed in single quotes.

If I print without single quotes i.e printf $i then the print statement fails becoz of illegal argument like "-r"

uname -a
Linux mymac 3.10.0-957.12.1.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Mar 20 11:34:37 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Try

printf -- $i

to eliminate that

bash: printf: -r: invalid option

problem incorrectly cited by you. Still, your entire code wouldn't work as

• you don't create an array
• even if you created an array by using the a=(...) syntax, it would contain 27 elements to loop across with for .
• even if you had a 3 element array, the ${a[@]} expansion wouldn't supply those three.

IFS="'" read -a a <<< $FPATH

would create the desired three element array, and e.g.

IFS=$'\n'; echo "${a
[*]}"

would correctly expand it.

Or try

while read LN; do echo $LN; done <<< $(echo "$FPATH" | tr \' $'\n')

@RudiC Thank you for the help though it still does not work. Below is the complete snippet.

#!/bin/bash
input="../vars/hello.txt"
while IFS= read -r line
do
    echo "$line"
    IFS=': ' read -r ip string <<< "$line"
    FPATH="$string"
    FPATH=${FPATH//$'u\''/}
    echo "PRINTING4:$FPATH"
    printf  "\n" >> new_test.txt

    while read LN; 
    do
        echo $LN; >> new_test.txt
     #done <<< $(echo "$FPATH" | tr \' $'\n')
     done <<< $(echo "$FPATH" | tr "'" "\n" | sed "s/^ //g")
done < "$input"

I get blank i.e no entries in the new_text.txt instead of the desired output. even when i try the other suggestion i.e done <<< $(echo "$FPATH" | tr \' $'\n')

Debug shows:

PRINTING4:-rw-rw-r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug  7 13:14 /app/F11.3/app/cust/exe/filename1.exe'  -rw-rw-r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug 19 10:09 /app/app/F11.3/app/cust/sql/33211.sql'  -rw-r--r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug  6 17:20 /app/F11.2/app/01/mrt/file1.mrt'
+ printf '\n'
++ echo '-rw-rw-r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug  7 13:14 /app/F11.3/app/cust/exe/filename1.exe'\''  -rw-rw-r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug 19 10:09 /app/app/F11.3/app/cust/sql/33211.sql'\''  -rw-r--r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug  6 17:20 /app/F11.2/app/01/mrt/file1.mrt'\'''
++ tr ''\''' '
'
+ read LN
+ echo -rw-rw-r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug 7 13:14 /app/F11.3/app/cust/exe/filename1.exe -rw-rw-r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug 19 10:09 /app/app/F11.3/app/cust/sql/33211.sql -rw-r--r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug 6 17:20 /app/F11.2/app/01/mrt/file1.mrt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug 7 13:14 /app/F11.3/app/cust/exe/filename1.exe -rw-rw-r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug 19 10:09 /app/app/F11.3/app/cust/sql/33211.sql -rw-r--r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug 6 17:20 /app/F11.2/app/01/mrt/file1.mrt
+ read LN
+ IFS=
+ read -r line -rw-r--r-- 1 user1 dba 0 Aug  6 17:20 /app/app/F11.3/app/cust/mrt/file1.mrt'

It works with the below code:

a=`echo $FPATH | tr "'" "\n" | sed "s/^ //g"`
   for i in "${a[@]}"
do
   printf -- "$i"
done

Thank you everyone for help!!

Another way that doesn't need externals, arrays, loops, or backticks:

INPUT="string'delimited'with'quotes"
OLDIFS="$IFS" ; IFS="'"
printf "%s\n" $INPUT
IFS="$OLDIFS"

The correct printf usage is printf "%s\n" "$i" .
The format argument not only elimates the problem with a leading - character but also problems with % characters.

printf can apply the format "%s\n" to multiple arguments.
If your loop does only print you can simply do

a=`echo $FPATH | tr "'" "\n" | sed "s/^ //g"`
printf "%s\n" "${a[@]}"