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I have linux machine red-hat 5.1

how to replace only the right single char (most side of string)

example from my sed syntax (not good because its replaced both "a" chars) l

 echo machine1a | sed s'/a/b/g' mbchine1b

But the requested answer should be - machine1b and not mbchine1b

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  • requested answer is the same as a task ?? if echo machine1a | sed s'/a/b/' SHOULD return the same string then I dont know why are you trying to sed it...just echo it. Unless you meant to say machine1b ? Commented May 14, 2012 at 22:45
  • see my update - you right I forget the "g" in the sed Commented May 14, 2012 at 22:50
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    are you trying to replace the last a with b? or are you trying to replace whatever the last character is? Commented May 14, 2012 at 23:29
  • why not use another tool than 'awk'. Here is the same functionality 'tcl: #!/usr/bin/tclsh set nameA "MachineA"; set nameB "[string range $nameA 0 end-1]B"; puts "$nameA\t$nameB" ' Commented May 15, 2012 at 1:39

3 Answers 3

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You can use the end-of-pattern-space pattern. The pattern $ matches the null string at the end of the pattern space. With this pattern you can avoid using rev as advised above.

 $ echo machine1a | sed 's/a$/b/' machine1b
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  • This is what you should use. I don't think you need the '-e' though. Commented May 15, 2012 at 1:55
  • @opsguy Thank you. -e is not necessary unless several scripts are supplied on the command line. Fixed. Commented May 15, 2012 at 3:07
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% echo machine1a | rev | sed s'/a/b/' | rev machine1b

I can't find a way to do this with sed alone. There is a flag to the s operation specifies to only replace the Nth match, but counting from the end doesn't work.

% echo machine1a | sed s'/a/b/2' machine1b
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  • I dont have the rev command Commented May 14, 2012 at 23:00
  • awesome solution! :) @Eytan, read below my generic bash answer. Commented May 14, 2012 at 23:06
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this is not possible using one simple sed expression. Instead do something like this ie. use bash's string manipulation capabilities:

var=machine1a; echo "${var%?}b"

But if you REALLY need sed then you can run the following command:

echo machine1a | sed s'/\(.*\)\(.\)$/\1b/g'

Sorry for confusion above by saying that it was not possible. I normally do this kind of stuff in bash using bash's string handling capabilities.

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  • I do not think it is not possible. In sed you can use the $ pattern that matches the end of the pattern space. Commented May 14, 2012 at 23:33
  • you are right...I dont know what was I thinking...probably because I normally do this kind of string operations using bash capabilities Commented May 15, 2012 at 8:09

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