Remember that a regex, by default, is "greedy". IOW, it matches as much as is
possible. So with the "CD.*QR" pattern, you match from the first CD until the
__last__ QR it can find. Not the first QR it can find. You would need the "non
greedy" regex "CD.*?QR" . However, it is unfortunate that IBM, in its
POSIX-inspired blindness, does not implement "non greedy" regular expressions.
I can't get this to work in either awk or sed. But, if you have the Ported
Tools available, then you have a older version of perl. It can do what you want.
example:
$cat test.txt
QQQQABCDEFGNOPQRXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
QQQQABCDEFGNOPQRXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
QQQQABCDEFGNOPQRXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
QQQQABCDEFGNOPQRXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
QQQQABCDEFGNOPQRXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
QQQQABCDEFGNOPQRXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
$perl -np -e 's/CD.*?QR/junkt/' test.txt
QQQQABjunktXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
QQQQABjunktXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
QQQQABjunktXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
QQQQABjunktXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
QQQQABjunktXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
QQQQABjunktXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
Where the leading "$" is my shell prompt character.
I crossposted this replay to MVS-OE for their viewing pleasure. <grin>
--
John McKown
Systems Engineer IV
IT
Administrative Services Group
HealthMarkets(r)
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List
> [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Ken MacKenzie
> Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 8:44 AM
> To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu
> Subject: Regular Expressions (OMVS)
>
> Hi All,
>
> I'm not sure if this is the appropriate forum, please point
> me to the correct one if it's not.
>
> I'm playing around with regular expressions and I want to
> achieve the following. I spoke to a Unix geek but he didn't
> really understand what I was asking.
>
> Given the following sample data, I want discover only the
> first occurrence of any string which matches my regexp.
> QQQQABCDEFGNOPQRXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
> QQQQABCDEFGNOPQRXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
> QQQQABCDEFGNOPQRXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
> QQQQABCDEFGNOPQRXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
> QQQQABCDEFGNOPQRXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
> QQQQABCDEFGNOPQRXXXPPPPABCDEFGNOPQRYYYOOOOABCDEFGNOPQRZZZ
>
> I tried: awk 'sub(/CD.*QR/,"junkt")' fxdata in an attempt to
> change QQQQABCDEFGNOPQRXXX to QQQQABjunktXXX but instead, it
> takes the final occurrence of QR, and returns QQQQABjunktZZZ.
> Notice the ZZZ on the end instead of XXX.
>
> This is being driven from a REXX exec in ISPF, if any of the
> above is not clear, I will try to explain further.
>
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