str expand for strings
Signature
> str expand {flags}
Flags
--path, -: Replaces all backslashes with double backslashes, useful for Path.
Input/output types:
| input | output |
|---|---|
| list<string> | list<list<string>> |
| string | list<string> |
Examples
Define a range inside braces to produce a list of string.
> "{3..5}" | str expand
╭───┬───╮
│ 0 │ 3 │
│ 1 │ 4 │
│ 2 │ 5 │
╰───┴───╯
Ignore the next character after the backslash ('')
> 'A{B\,,C}' | str expand
╭───┬─────╮
│ 0 │ AB, │
│ 1 │ AC │
╰───┴─────╯
Commas that are not inside any braces need to be skipped.
> 'Welcome\, {home,mon ami}!' | str expand
╭───┬───────────────────╮
│ 0 │ Welcome, home! │
│ 1 │ Welcome, mon ami! │
╰───┴───────────────────╯
Use double backslashes to add a backslash.
> 'A{B\\,C}' | str expand
╭───┬─────╮
│ 0 │ AB\ │
│ 1 │ AC │
╰───┴─────╯
Export comma separated values inside braces ({}) to a string list.
> "{apple,banana,cherry}" | str expand
╭───┬────────╮
│ 0 │ apple │
│ 1 │ banana │
│ 2 │ cherry │
╰───┴────────╯
If the piped data is path, you may want to use --path flag, or else manually replace the backslashes with double backslashes.
> 'C:\{Users,Windows}' | str expand --path
╭───┬────────────╮
│ 0 │ C:\Users │
│ 1 │ C:\Windows │
╰───┴────────────╯
Brace expressions can be used one after another.
> "A{b,c}D{e,f}G" | str expand
╭───┬───────╮
│ 0 │ AbDeG │
│ 1 │ AbDfG │
│ 2 │ AcDeG │
│ 3 │ AcDfG │
╰───┴───────╯
Collection may include an empty item. It can be put at the start of the list.
> "A{,B,C}" | str expand
╭───┬────╮
│ 0 │ A │
│ 1 │ AB │
│ 2 │ AC │
╰───┴────╯
Empty item can be at the end of the collection.
> "A{B,C,}" | str expand
╭───┬────╮
│ 0 │ AB │
│ 1 │ AC │
│ 2 │ A │
╰───┴────╯
Empty item can be in the middle of the collection.
> "A{B,,C}" | str expand
╭───┬────╮
│ 0 │ AB │
│ 1 │ A │
│ 2 │ AC │
╰───┴────╯
Also, it is possible to use one inside another. Here is a real-world example, that creates files:
> "A{B{1,3},C{2,5}}D" | str expand
╭───┬──────╮
│ 0 │ AB1D │
│ 1 │ AB3D │
│ 2 │ AC2D │
│ 3 │ AC5D │
╰───┴──────╯
Notes
This syntax may seem familiar with glob {A,B}.C. The difference is glob relies on filesystem, but str expand is not. Inside braces, we put variants. Then basically we're creating all possible outcomes.