Text-processing tools like awk and sed allow you to automatically perform a sequence of editing operations based on a script. For this problem we consider the specific case in which we want to perform a series of string replacements, within a single line of text, based on a fixed set of rules. Each rule specifies the string to find, and the string to replace it with, as shown below.
Rule Find Replace-by
1.ban bab
2.baba be
3.ana any
4.ba b hind the g
To perform the edits for a given line of text, start with the first rule. Replace the first occurrence of the find string within the text by the replace-by string, then try to perform the same replacement again on the new text. Continue until the find string no longer occurs within the text, and then move on to the next rule. Continue until all the rules have been considered. Note that (1) when searching for a find string, you always start searching at the beginning of the text, (2) once you have finished using a rule (because the find string no longer occurs) you never use that rule again, and (3) case is significant.
For example, suppose we start with the line
banana boat
and apply these rules. The sequence of transformations is shown below, where occurrences of a find string are underlined and replacements are boldfaced. Note that rule 1 was used twice, then rule 2 was used once, then rule 3 was used zero times, and then rule 4 was used once.
Before After
banana boat babana boat
babana boat bababa boat
bababa boat beba boat
beba boat behind the goat