Using sed to change only consecutive repeated letters

Question

Using sed, how to change the letter \'a\' to \'A\' but only if it appears repeated as two or more consecutive letters. Example, from:

galaxy
ear
aardvak
Haaaaaaa         


        

Answer 1

You can do it using groups. If you have this file:

$ cat a
galaxy
ear
aardvak
Haaaaaaaaa 
Ulaanbaatar

You can use this sed command:

$ sed 's/\(.\)\1\{1,\}/\U&/g' a
galaxy
ear
AArdvak
HAAAAAAAAA 
UlAAnbAAtar

What does happen here? If we have a char, "packed" in a group (\(.\)), and this group (\1) repeats itself one or more times (\1\{1,\}), then replace the matched part (&) by its uppercased version (\U&).

Answer 2

EDIT
You can do this with:

sed 's/a\(a\+\)/A\U\1/;s/b\(b\+\)/B\U\1/;s/c\(c\+\)/C\U\1/;s/d\(d\+\)/D\U\1/;s/e\(e\+\)/E\U\1/;s/f\(f\+\)/F\U\1/;s/g\(g\+\)/G\U\1/;s/h\(h\+\)/H\U\1/;s/i\(i\+\)/I\U\1/;s/j\(j\+\)/J\U\1/;s/k\(k\+\)/K\U\1/;s/l\(l\+\)/L\U\1/;s/m\(m\+\)/M\U\1/;s/n\(n\+\)/N\U\1/;s/o\(o\+\)/O\U\1/;s/p\(p\+\)/P\U\1/;s/q\(q\+\)/Q\U\1/;s/r\(r\+\)/R\U\1/;s/s\(s\+\)/S\U\1/;s/t\(t\+\)/T\U\1/;s/u\(u\+\)/U\U\1/;s/v\(v\+\)/V\U\1/;s/w\(w\+\)/W\U\1/;s/x\(x\+\)/X\U\1/;s/y\(y\+\)/Y\U\1/;s/z\(z\+\)/Z\U\1/'

(Thanks to shelter)

Or with a pipe of sed:

function capitalize_consecutives () {
  sed 's/a\(a\+\)/A\U\1/' |
  sed 's/b\(b\+\)/B\U\1/' |
  sed 's/c\(c\+\)/C\U\1/' |
  sed 's/d\(d\+\)/D\U\1/' |
  sed 's/e\(e\+\)/E\U\1/' |
  sed 's/f\(f\+\)/F\U\1/' |
  sed 's/g\(g\+\)/G\U\1/' |
  sed 's/h\(h\+\)/H\U\1/' |
  sed 's/i\(i\+\)/I\U\1/' |
  sed 's/j\(j\+\)/J\U\1/' |
  sed 's/k\(k\+\)/K\U\1/' |
  sed 's/l\(l\+\)/L\U\1/' |
  sed 's/m\(m\+\)/M\U\1/' |
  sed 's/n\(n\+\)/N\U\1/' |
  sed 's/o\(o\+\)/O\U\1/' |
  sed 's/p\(p\+\)/P\U\1/' |
  sed 's/q\(q\+\)/Q\U\1/' |
  sed 's/r\(r\+\)/R\U\1/' |
  sed 's/s\(s\+\)/S\U\1/' |
  sed 's/t\(t\+\)/T\U\1/' |
  sed 's/u\(u\+\)/U\U\1/' |
  sed 's/v\(v\+\)/V\U\1/' |
  sed 's/w\(w\+\)/W\U\1/' |
  sed 's/x\(x\+\)/X\U\1/' |
  sed 's/y\(y\+\)/Y\U\1/' |
  sed 's/z\(z\+\)/Z\U\1/' 
}

Then let it parses your file:

capitalize_consecutives < myfile

\U is to UPPERCASE the occurence. I guess this is only for GNU sed.