remove extra spaces between fields

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi,

I have a source file as mentioned below: I want to remove all the extra spaces between the fields.

a b--------|sa df-------|3232---|3
sf sa------|afs sdf-----|43-----|33
a b c------|adfsa dsf---|23-32|23

*Here '-' idicates spaces

Now, I want output as below:

a b|sa df|3232|3
sf sa|afs sdf|43|33
a b c|adfsa dsf|23-32|23

How can i achieve this?

Thanks,
Sri

2 
sed 's/[[:space:]]\{2,\}\|//g' infile
a b|sa df|3232|3
sf sa|afs sdf|43|33
a b c|adfsa dsf|23-32|23
3

cat filename | tr -s ' '

This should work. Replaces two or more more spaces with one space.

4

Hi,

Thanks for your quick reply,

but im getting output as below using SED.

a bsa df32323
sf saafs sdf4333
a b cadfsa dsf23-3223

and using "tr" iam able to delete extra spaces but getting one space(as mentioned below) after each field, which i dont want :

a b |sa df |3232 |3
sf sa |afs sdf |43 |33
a b c |adfsa dsf |23-32 |23

please let me know where iam mistaken?

Thanks,
Sri

5

The sed works without problems on my box as you can see. Maybe you show what you issued and what the error output is or try it with gsed.

6

Using xpg4' sed on Solaris with "sed 's/[[:space:]]\{2,\}\|//g'" gives for me

a bsa df32323
sf saafs sdf4333
a b cadfsa dsf23 32|23

Must use "sed 's/[[:space:]]\{2,\}\|/|/g'" (just add | before /g) gives the good result

a b|sa df|3232|3
sf sa|afs sdf|43|33
a b c|adfsa dsf|23 32|23
7

Thanks all,

Goldorakk, your solution is working fine.

Can you please explain the code. I am unable to understand this.

Thanks,
Sri

8 
sed -e 's/ *|/|/g' -e 's/| */|/g'  a.txt