I previously asked the question in which I required help with removing double quotes from a string after a . (dot). I kindly received an answer however I am unsure as to how it works exactly.
I am now attempting to remove double quotes from around a string before the . (dot). I have attempted through trial and error to edit the original command, however I haven't had much luck, the closest I have come so far I have left below.
Could someone please explain how and why the first command works and if possible aid me editing my attempt to allow it to remove the double quotes from around the string on the left of the . (dot).
Original Command - removes " " from the right of the dot:
sed 's/\."\([^"]*\)"/.\1/g' file
Sample Before:
"A".HELLO
A."HELLO"
"A"."HELLO"
Required Result:
A.HELLO
A."HELLO"
A."HELLO"
Attempt:
sed -i 's/"*"\.\([^"]*\)"/.\1/g' $(2)
After:
"A".HELLO
A."HELLO"
"A.HELLO"
Link to original post: UNIX Bash - Removing double quotes from specific strings within a file Credit to user potong for original answer.
Could you please try following(in case you are ok with awk), written and tested with shown samples in GNU awk.
awk 'BEGIN{FS=OFS="."} {gsub(/"/,"",$1)} 1' Input_file
Explanation: Making field separator and output field separator as . in BEGIN section. Then in main program globally substituting " with NULL in first field specifically, since we have made . as field separator and OP wants to remove " double quotes before . only hence taking 1st field will do the trick here. 1 will print current line of Input_file.