Using sed to split a string with a delimiter

Question

I have a string in the following format   string1 string2 string3 string4 string5  I m trying to use sed to split the string on   and print each sub-string on a new line   Here is what I m doing   cat   Desktop myfile txt   sed s     n    This prints   string1 string2 string3 string4 string5   How can I get it to split on each delimiter

User · Accepted Answer

To split a string with a delimiter with GNU sed you say:

sed 's/delimiter/\n/g'     # GNU sed

For example, to split using : as a delimiter:

$ sed 's/:/\n/g' <<< "he:llo:you"
he
llo
you

Or with a non-GNU sed:

$ sed $'s/:/\\\n/g' <<< "he:llo:you"
he
llo
you

In this particular case, you missed the g after the substitution. Hence, it is just done once. See:

$ echo "string1:string2:string3:string4:string5" | sed s/:/\\n/g
string1
string2
string3
string4
string5

g stands for global and means that the substitution has to be done globally, that is, for any occurrence. See that the default is 1 and if you put for example 2, it is done 2 times, etc.

All together, in your case you would need to use:

sed 's/:/\\n/g' ~/Desktop/myfile.txt

Note that you can directly use the sed ... file syntax, instead of unnecessary piping: cat file | sed.

User · Answer

This might work for you  GNU sed    sed  y    n   file   or perhaps   sed y      n   file

User · Answer

If you re using gnu sed then you can use  x0A for newline   sed  s    x0A g    Desktop myfile txt

User · Answer

Using simply tr      tr        n   lt  lt  lt  string1 string2 string3 string4 string5 string1 string2 string3 string4 string5   If you really need sed      sed  s    n g   lt  lt  lt  string1 string2 string3 string4 string5 string1 string2 string3 string4 string5

User · Answer

Using  n in sed is non-portable  The portable way to do what you want with sed is   sed  s      g    Desktop myfile txt   but in reality this isn t a job for sed anyway  it s the job tr was created to do   tr          lt    Desktop myfile txt

User · Answer

This should do it   cat   Desktop myfile txt   sed s     n g

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