Last week I accidently externalized all my strings of my eclipse project. I need to revert this and my only hope is sed. I tried to create scripts but failed pathetically because I'm new with sed and this would be a very complicated operation. What I need to do is this:

Strings in class.java file is currently in the following format(method) Messages.getString(<key>). Example :

    if (new File(DataSource.DEFAULT_VS_PATH).exists()) {
        for (int i = 1; i <= c; i++) {
            if (!new File(DataSource.DEFAULT_VS_PATH
                    + Messages.getString("VSDataSource.89") + i).exists()) { //$NON-NLS-1$
                getnewvfspath = DataSource.DEFAULT_VS_PATH
                        + Messages.getString("VSDataSource.90") + i; //$NON-NLS-1$
                break;
            }
        }
    }

The key and matching Strings are in messages.properties file in the following format.

VSDataSource.92=No of rows in db = 
VSDataSource.93=Verifying db entry : 
VSDataSource.94=DB is open
VSDataSource.95=DB is closed
VSDataSource.96=Invalid db entry for 
VSDataSource.97=\ removed.
key=string

So I need the java file back in this format:

    if (new File(DataSource.DEFAULT_VS_PATH).exists()) {
        for (int i = 1; i <= c; i++) {
            if (!new File(DataSource.DEFAULT_VS_PATH
                    + "String 2" + i).exists()) { //$NON-NLS-1$
                getnewvfspath = DataSource.DEFAULT_VS_PATH
                        + "String 1" + i; //$NON-NLS-1$
                break;
            }
        }
    }

How can I accomplish this with sed? Or is there an easier way?

• java
• sed

This might work for you (GNU sed?):

sed 's|^\([^=]*\)=\(.*\)|s@Messages.getString("\1")@"\2"@g|;s/\\/\\\\/g' messages.properties |
sed -i -f - *.java

To repeat my comment on the question - I think that Java problems are best solved in Java :) Though this arguably is an Eclipse-helped problem caused by you :)

Make a Java program in which you can:

• Read the properties,
• Traverse all your project .java files,
• For each file:
  • Read each file line by line,
  • Replace all the strings by using regexps, keying from the loaded properties,
  • Save when done reading all lines.

Not a 2-minute job, but easy enough.

But if you really want to use sed ;)

mkt.sh

$ cat mkt.sh
# Test structure
rm -rf a b
mkdir a
mkdir b
cat > a/A.java <<EOF
my plans for replace
this will be left alone 
EOF
cat > b/B.java <<EOF
propery ginger
broccoli tomato potato
EOF

display() {
  for i in a/A.java b/B.java; do
    echo --- $i
    cat $i
  done
}

display

# Prop change
echo 'echo --- Replacing in: $1' > replace.sh
sed -r 's/([^=]+)=(.+)/sed -i '\''s#\1#\2#'\'' $1/' sample.properties >> replace.sh
chmod u+x replace.sh

# Replace
find -type f -name "*.java"|xargs -n1 ./replace.sh

# Test
display

Run:

$ ./mkt.sh 
--- a/A.java
my plans for replace
this will be left alone 
--- b/B.java
propery ginger
broccoli tomato potato
--- Replacing in: ./a/A.java
--- Replacing in: ./b/B.java
--- a/A.java
my plans for world domination
this will be left alone 
--- b/B.java
propery ginger
steak tomato potato

This should work properly on your .java files, but do make a copy before ;) You will have some issues if # is in the strings, but you can solve this by removing these from properties file, doing a replace, bringing them back and changing this line:

sed -r 's/([^=]+)=(.+)/sed -i '\''s#\1#\2#'\'' $1/' sample.properties >> replace.sh

to e.g.:

sed -r 's/([^=]+)=(.+)/sed -i '\''s+\1+\2+'\'' $1/' sample.properties >> replace.sh

where + is not a remaining character. A bit of a hassle, but...

Hope this helps.

makesed.awk:

BEGIN {
    FS="=";
    print "for i in *.java"
    print "do"
    print "sed \\"
}

{
    msg = "Messages.getString(\"" $1 "\")";
    gsub("/","\\/",$2);
    print "-e 's/" msg "/\"" $2 "\"/g' \\"
}

END {
    print "$i > $$"
    print "mv $$ $i"
    print "done" 
}

Run:

awk -f makesed.awk yourpropertiesfile.dat > process.sh

This gives you a shell script:

for i in *.java
do
sed \
-e 's/Messages.getString("VSDataSource.92")/"No of rows in db "/g' \
-e 's/Messages.getString("VSDataSource.93")/"Verifying db entry : "/g' \
-e 's/Messages.getString("VSDataSource.94")/"DB is open"/g' \
-e 's/Messages.getString("VSDataSource.95")/"DB is closed"/g' \
-e 's/Messages.getString("VSDataSource.96")/"Invalid db entry for "/g' \
-e 's/Messages.getString("VSDataSource.97")/"\ removed."/g' \
$i > $$
mv $$ $i
done

Then go in to your respective Java directories and run:

sh process.sh

That will "fix" all of the java files in that directory.

If your properties file is long, you may very well run in to a command line limit with sed. Simply split the file up in to chunks until the script is happy.

Obviously this doesn't work with any escape character, if you have "=" in your messages you'll suffer some pain as well. If you're fool enough to run this on code that isn't backed up, then you certainly deserve whatever happens to you.

But it should be a good first start.

You don't need to program anything. Right-click on one of your modified files and select "Replace With >", "Previous from Local History". Repeat as necessary.