Replace a double backslash followed by quote (\\') using sed?

Question

I am unable to replace double backslash followed by quote \\' in sed. This is my current command

echo file.txt | sed "s:\\\\':\\':g"

The above command not only replaces \\' with \' it also replaces \' with '

How could I just replace exact match?

Input:

'one', 'two \\'change', 'three \'unchanged'

Expected:

'one', 'two \'change', 'three \'unchanged'

Actual:

'one', 'two \'change', 'three 'unchanged'

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:58

8

$ sed "s/\\\\\\\'/\\\'/g" file
'one', 'two \'change', 'three \'unchanged'

edited May 23 '17 at 11:58

Community

answered Jun 14 '15 at 05:23

nu11p01n73R

Can you explain why you only need to escape the backslash once? – bkmoney Jun 14 '15 at 05:31
it didn't work on my example. This also replaces `\'` with `'` – Jardalu Jun 14 '15 at 05:38
@Jardalu Happy to hear that :) – nu11p01n73R Jun 14 '15 at 06:00

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 14 '15 at 05:29

2

You can also use:

sed "s/\\\\\'/\\\'/g"

answered Jun 14 '15 at 05:29

Rakholiya Jenish

2 Answers2