Removing a '\" from a flat file

[rmueller58]

I have an Informix SQL script that dumps data to a flat, CSV file.

Informix placed a "\" in null fields. I'd appreciate any pointers on how to either fix the SQL script, or script a perl substitution that yanks the "\" and replaces it with a space.

[rmueller58]

space or nothing

I thought initially I could do

perl -pi -e s/'\'//g filename.csv

I get the following error:

# perl -pi -e s/'\'//g ralalertnow.csv
Substitution replacement not terminated at -e line 1.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

# perl -pe 's/"\\"/" "/g' file

...and if you want to update "in-place":

# perl -pi.old -e 's/"\\"/" "/g' file

...which preserves the original file as "file.old".

Regards!

...JRF...

[Dennis Handly · Accepted solution]

sed will do this:
sed -e 's/\\/ /g' file > file.new

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again):

> I tried the perl version and it failed to string the '\' Dennis's sed script worked..

Yes, Dennis's script blindly replaces ALL backslashes with spaces. Is that what you really want?

You didn't make that very clear in my opinion. I replaced only "\" by " ".

Regards!

...JRF...