How can I use literal single quotes inside the argument to perl's -e?

Question

I try to create a short perl command that creates SQL inserts for my DB based on a text file. However, I am not able to get in the single-quotes used by SQL

perl -pe '$i += 1; chomp; @a = split /\t/; $_ = "INSERT INTO XYZ VALUES($i, \'$a[4]\');\n"'

results in a syntax error near unexpected token `)'

Any ideas?

Answer 1

perl -pe '$i += 1; chomp; @a = split /\t/; $_ = "INSERT INTO XYZ VALUES($i, \047$a[4]\047);\n";'

Answer 2

You need to escape them for the shell, not for Perl. This requires a slightly different syntax. Assuming you're running this under bash, ksh, or similar, then

perl -e 'print "greengrocer'\''s\n"'

should print greengrocer's.

Alternatively, you could insert the character as a hex escape sequence:

perl -e 'print "greengrocer\x27s\n"'

Answer 3

perl -pe "\$i += 1; chomp; @a = split /\t/; \$_ = \"INSERT INTO XYZ VALUES(\$i, '\$a[4]');\n\""

From this page it states for BASH: "A single quote may not occur between single quotes, even when preceded by a backslash.". So use double quotes instead and escape as necessary.

Answer 4

Use the technique @Porculus suggested in his answer:

perl -pe '$i += 1; chomp; @a = split /\t/; $_ = "INSERT INTO XYZ VALUES($i, '\''$a[4]'\'');\n";'

This closes the single-quoted string just before the single quote, then uses an escaped single-quote, then opens a new single-quoted string.

The beauty of this technique is that you can automate it:

sed -e "s/'/'\\\\''/g" -e "s/^/'/" -e "s/$/'/" <<'EOF'
$i += 1; chomp; @a = split /\t/; $_ = "INSERT INTO XYZ VALUES($i, '$a[4]');\n";
EOF

resulting a properly-quoted string you can paste on to the command line :

'$i += 1; chomp; @a = split /\t/; $_ = "INSERT INTO XYZ VALUES($i, '\''$a[4]'\'');\n";'

Or you can make a shell-script for it:

$ cat > quotify
#!/bin/sh
sed -e "s/'/'\\\\''/g" -e "s/^/'/" -e "s/$/'/"
^D
$ chmod +x quotify
$ ./quotify
$i += 1; chomp; @a = split /\t/; $_ = "INSERT INTO XYZ VALUES($i, '$a[4]');\n";
^D
'$i += 1; chomp; @a = split /\t/; $_ = "INSERT INTO XYZ VALUES($i, '\''$a[4]'\'');\n";'

(The above sed firstly replaces each ' with '\'' then puts a ' at the front and back.

Answer 5

Found a work-around by using a | for all single-quote and then in a second perl call replacing this | by a single quote (perl -pe "s/\|/'/g")

perl -pe '$i += 1; chomp; @a = split /\t/; $_ = "INSERT INTO XYZ VALUES($i, |$a[4]|, |$a[5]|, |$a[7]|, |$a[0]|, |$a[1]|, |$a[3]|);\n"' | perl -pe "s/\|/'/g"

Still interested in a better solution.