Question

I am trying to replace strings in a document that enclosed in single quotes, to a string without.

'test' -> test

Is there a way using sed I can do this?

Thanks

Answer 1

This will remove single quotes from around any quoted word, and leave other quotes alone:

sed -E "s/'([a-zA-Z]*)'/\1/g" 

When tested:

foo 'bar' it's 'OK' --> foo bar it's OK

Notice that it left the quote in it's intact.

Explanation:

The search regex '([a-zA-Z]*)' is matching any word (letters, no spaces) surrounded by quotes and using brackets, it captures the word within. The replacement regex \1 refers to “group 1” – the first captured group (ie the bracketed group in the search pattern – the word)

FYI, here’s the test:

echo "foo 'bar' it's 'OK'" | sed -E "s/'([a-zA-Z]*)'/\1/g"