Replace spaces with dashes in file name

[jarhead]

I have a simple bash file to create a new markdown file named with the current date as well as the file name I input via {query} which works correctly...

 

file="{query}".md
touch ~/folder/_posts/$( date '+%Y-%m-%d-' )"$file"

Is there an easy way to add code to replace spaces in the file name with dashes? Obviously, the date is formatted correctly. It would be so much easier to just type "this is the name of my file" versus "this-is-the-name-of-my-file".

 

Also, how would I then have the file opened in my editor of choice? Usually the following works but for some reason is not. Probably the way I'm referencing $file.

open -a "Byword" "$file"

Thanks.

 

[Tyler Eich]

Replace spaces with dashes in the shell (sh, bash, zsh, etc.):

echo "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" | tr " " "-"
# --> "Lorem-ipsum-dolor-sit-amet"

If you only want the date to be dash-free, do:

$( date '+%Y %m %d ' )

The open command doesn't seem to like "\ " combinations. Try telling Alfred to leave spaces unescaped:

Edited January 11, 2014 by Tyler Eich

[jarhead]

Still learning my way around Terminal so I know I'm missing something.

 

I've tried adding

| tr " " "-"

after

touch ~/folder/_posts/$( date '+%Y-%m-%d-' )"$file"

which clearly is not correct. I'm not sure how the echo command would be used here.

 

To have the file opened in my editor, I just had to point it to the path.

open -a "Byword" ~/folder/_posts/"$file"

Edited January 11, 2014 by jarhead

[RodgerWW]

Try this in your script for creating the file:

file=$(echo "{query}.md" | tr " " "-")
touch $( date '+%Y-%m-%d-' )"$file"

SPACES still unchecked.

[jarhead]

Thanks Rodger. That did it. My final script...

 

file=$(echo "$( date '+%Y-%m-%d-' ){query}.md" | tr " " "-")
touch ~/folder/_posts/"$file" && open -a "Byword" ~/folder/_posts/"$file"

And thanks to Tyler as well.