str expand for strings

Signature

> str expand {flags}

Flags

• --path, -: Replaces all backslashes with double backslashes, useful for Path.

Input/output types:

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, monami!│
╰───┴───────────────────╯

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.