Delete space before and after tab

[Korelis]

Hello Everyone,

I need your help again. I can't seem to figure out how to using either sed or awk to delete a space before and after a tab. I have tried various lines that I could find and I either end up taking out all the spaces or all the tabs.

Here is the file right now. I used sed to find all the tabs and replace with the word TAB since I know the forums won't show it.

1 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB SERVER1\Backup of files on C$,System State and Services Database\admin01 TAB 22606 TAB 6551
2 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB SERVER1\Backup of Microsoft SQL Server\admin01 TAB 5138 TAB 229
3 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB SERVER2\Backup of files on C$,System State and Services Database\admin01 TAB 5990 TAB 1549
4 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB SERVER2\Backup of Microsoft SQL Server\admin01 TAB 19 TAB 1
5 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB SQL1\192.168.100.10\Backup of  information_schema, lava, SQL1\admin01 TAB 15 TAB 1
6 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB UNIX-SSH\172.16.0.3\Backup of  /\admin01 TAB 12948 TAB 987
7 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB UNIX-SSH\192.168.2.5\Backup of  /\admin01 TAB 12 TAB 8
8 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB TECHIT1\Backup of files on C$, System State  and Services Database\admin01 TAB 12772 TAB 3988
9 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB SERVER3\Backup of files on C$,System State and Services Database\admin01 TAB 5765 TAB 1399

What I would like to see is

ACCT11111111TABSERVER1\Backup of files on C$,System State and Services Database\admin01
ACCT11111111TABSERVER1\Backup of Microsoft SQL Server\admin01
ACCT11111111TABSERVER2\Backup of files on C$,System State and Services Database\admin01
ACCT11111111TABSERVER2\Backup of Microsoft SQL Server\admin01
ACCT11111111TABSQL1\192.168.100.10\Backup of  information_schema, lava, SQL1\admin01
ACCT11111111TABUNIX-SSH\172.16.0.3\Backup of  /\admin01
ACCT11111111TABUNIX-SSH\192.168.2.5\Backup of  /\admin01
ACCT11111111TABTECHIT1\Backup of files on C$, System State  and Services Database\admin01
ACCT11111111TABSERVER3\Backup of files on C$,System State and Services Database\admin01

[i92guboj]

Hello Everyone,

I need your help again. I can't seem to figure out how to using either sed or awk to delete a space before and after a tab. I have tried various lines that I could find and I either end up taking out all the spaces or all the tabs.

Here is the file right now. I used sed to find all the tabs and replace with the word TAB since I know the forums won't show it.

1 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB SERVER1\Backup of files on C$,System State and Services Database\admin01 TAB 22606 TAB 6551
2 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB SERVER1\Backup of Microsoft SQL Server\admin01 TAB 5138 TAB 229
3 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB SERVER2\Backup of files on C$,System State and Services Database\admin01 TAB 5990 TAB 1549
4 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB SERVER2\Backup of Microsoft SQL Server\admin01 TAB 19 TAB 1
5 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB SQL1\192.168.100.10\Backup of  information_schema, lava, SQL1\admin01 TAB 15 TAB 1
6 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB UNIX-SSH\172.16.0.3\Backup of  /\admin01 TAB 12948 TAB 987
7 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB UNIX-SSH\192.168.2.5\Backup of  /\admin01 TAB 12 TAB 8
8 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB TECHIT1\Backup of files on C$, System State  and Services Database\admin01 TAB 12772 TAB 3988
9 TAB ACCT11111111 TAB SERVER3\Backup of files on C$,System State and Services Database\admin01 TAB 5765 TAB 1399

What I would like to see is

ACCT11111111TABSERVER1\Backup of files on C$,System State and Services Database\admin01
ACCT11111111TABSERVER1\Backup of Microsoft SQL Server\admin01
ACCT11111111TABSERVER2\Backup of files on C$,System State and Services Database\admin01
ACCT11111111TABSERVER2\Backup of Microsoft SQL Server\admin01
ACCT11111111TABSQL1\192.168.100.10\Backup of  information_schema, lava, SQL1\admin01
ACCT11111111TABUNIX-SSH\172.16.0.3\Backup of  /\admin01
ACCT11111111TABUNIX-SSH\192.168.2.5\Backup of  /\admin01
ACCT11111111TABTECHIT1\Backup of files on C$, System State  and Services Database\admin01
ACCT11111111TABSERVER3\Backup of files on C$,System State and Services Database\admin01

If we call "x" that data file, then something in the lines of the following, should work (in bash):

#!/bin/bash
cat x | \
while read line
do
var=${line/[1234567890] /}
var=${var/ TAB /TAB}
echo ${var/TAB /TAB}
done

If you want, you can use sh instead of bash, but then the ${//} stuff will not work, and you are bound to use sed (which will be uglier, but more portable).

[Korelis]

Thank you for the response. I was testing out the code and it is not reporting a TAB instead it changes it to a single whitespace. It also is removing out the \ characters. I do need those .

[i92guboj]

Thank you for the response. I was testing out the code and it is not reporting a TAB instead it changes it to a single whitespace. It also is removing out the \ characters. I do need those .

Umm, I understood "TAB" as a literal string hehe. I think that what you want is this:

#!/bin/bash
cat x | \
while read line
do
var=${line/[1234567890] /}
var=${var/ \\t /\\t}
echo "${var}"
done

[Korelis]

Umm, I understood "TAB" as a literal string hehe. I think that what you want is this:

#!/bin/bash
cat x | \
while read line
do
var=${line/[1234567890] /}
var=${var/ \\t /\\t}
echo "${var}"
done

That is still showing the space tab space when I run it. Basically I want the file to look like

ACCT11111111<TAB>SERVER1\Backup of files on C$,System State and Services Database\admin01<TAB>

I do not want a space after that last number before <TAB> and I do not want a space before the > in <TAB> on the first column. I do want the tab. I hope this helps.

[vsemaska]

Try this using sed. \t signifies the TAB character in sed:

sed 's/ *\t */\t/g' <file>

This will delete 1 or more spaces before and/or after a TAB.