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https://github.com/Inventitech/strans

Performs string manipulation tasks by learning from the provided example(s), instead of having to program them out explicitly.
https://github.com/Inventitech/strans

program-synthesis sed shell unix-cli unix-command

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Performs string manipulation tasks by learning from the provided example(s), instead of having to program them out explicitly.

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README 

        
strans

======



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`strans` (string transform) is an intuitive string manipulation

utility for the shell (primarily Unix, but should work™

cross-platform). Users do not need to know anything about

programming. All they need to do is provide `strans` with a set of

examples. `strans` will automagically learn transformation rules from

these examples and apply them to the input given on STDIN.



How to install

==============



`strans` is distributed platform indepedently as a NuGet package, or

(if you do not want to install dotnet) standalone as an AppImage for

Linux and as a DMG for MacOs.  Download the latest `strans` from

[releases](https://github.com/Inventitech/strans/releases).



## Platform-independent global tool (requires `dotnet`)



`strans` is available as a 

[global tool on NuGet](https://www.nuget.org/packages/strans). If you 

have `dotnet` installed, you can simply `dotnet tool install -g strans` 

to install it (or use `dotnet tool update`, `uninstall` etc.).



## Linux



Our AppImage should run on practically any recent linux Desktop

distribution.



After downloading, simply do



`

chmod +x strans-linux.AppImage

./strans-linux.AppImage

`



To install it system-wide as `strans`, just



`sudo cp strans-linux.AppImage /usr/bin/strans`



## MacOs

After mounting the `dmg` and copying `strans.app` into `/Applications`, it might be necessary to



```

chmod +x /Applications/strans.app/Contents/MacOS/strans

/Applications/strans.app/Contents/MacOS/strans

```

to run `strans`.

 



How to use

==========

```

# With before and after example

strans -b pattern-to-match -a desired-transformation



# With file that contains examples

strans -f file-with-examples



# Help page

strans --help

```



Examples

========

![Strans in action](https://github.com/Inventitech/strans/raw/master/strans.gif)



## Example 1: Extract ending of files



Assume that



```

ls

Document.pdf  Document2.pdf Document.txt  Document.png

```



Now we want to get a unique list of all file endings present in the directory:



```

ls | strans -b Document.pdf -a pdf | sort -u

```



Note how nicely strans (here defined as an alias) integrates with other tools.



Of course, as

[StackOverflow](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1842254/how-can-i-find-all-of-the-distinct-file-extensions-in-a-folder-hierarchy)

will tell you, we could obtain the same result with



```

ls | perl -ne 'print $1 if m/\.([^.\/]+)$/' | sort -u 

```



But with `strans` we accomplished the same with much less brain work,

without StackOverflow and Perl, but instead with pure joy!



## Example 2: Convert full names to their initials



```

printf "Moritz Beller\nGeorgios Gousios" |

strans -b "First Last" -a "FL"

```



neatly outputs



```

MB

GG

```



However, when we add a third entry with a middle name, Andy Emil

Zaidman, things start to break, as this does not appear in the

initials:



```

MB

GG

AZ

```



We can fix this by providing `strans` with another example. We create

a file called `example-transformations`



```

First Last => FL

Firstname Middlename Lastname => FML

```



and call



```

printf "Moritz Beller\nGeorgios Gousios\nAndy Emil Zaidman" |

strans --example-file example-transformations

```



And, voila, the output is



```

MB

GG

AEZ

```



Note how `strans` adds the second example and generates a global

transformation rule that satisfies all examples given to it. Simply

having the last FML example would not be enough because it would miss

the case where only two names are available.



How to develop

==============



You need [dotnet](https://dotnet.microsoft.com/) to run `strans`.



```

git clone https://github.com/Inventitech/strans.git

cd strans

dotnet restore

dotnet publish -c Release

```



An alias (in your bashrc, ...) can make `strans` integrate seamlessly in

a Unix environment:



```

alias strans="dotnet path/to/strans.dll"

```



Background

==========



`strans` uses program-by-example techniques from [Microsoft

PROSE](https://microsoft.github.io/prose/) to come up with the rules

behind this string manipulation. PROSE allows the creation of

extremely complex string transformations within a matter of a few

seconds by just giving easy-to-write examples. In its essence,

`strans` is only a light-weight wrapper around and direct application

of Microsoft's PROSE framework. `strans` provides the goodness of the

now-removed PowerShell (!) command

[Convert-String](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility/Convert-String?view=powershell-5.1).