Question

File looks like

$1    $2      $3

Text  Text2    *

Text  Text4    Text3

I would like to search for *'s within a file and replace the with the text in the column next to it. While keeping the rest of the info… basicly replace the * logicaly with column 2.

Currently I am working with either sed or awk

awk : awk '{ if($3=*) {print$2}}' works… but I would like to keep $1,2 aswell

sed : sed -r 's/[*]//g' I can’t get reg expression to replace with $2 properly

Any quick help, tips or tricks?

Answer 1

Contents of file.txt:

Text Text2 *
Text Text4 Text3

One way using awk:

awk '$3 == "*" { $3=$2 }1' file.txt

Results:

Text Text2 Text2
Text Text4 Text3