STRING encodes empty values as backslash for easyer `read`ing of TAB-DBs, UNSTRING...

diff --git a/storage.sh b/storage.sh
index 77ee29c06243eae9359c03125626a46f498cded4..22e6accbcba7cddd75bbaec0235a174b4aa53bd3 100755 (executable)
--- a/storage.sh
+++ b/storage.sh
@@ -66,11 +66,6 @@ RELEASE(){
   fi
 }
 
-# STRING='
-#   s;\\;\\\\;g; s;\t;\\t;g;
-#   s;\n;\\n;g;  s;\r;\\r;g;
-#   s;\+;\\+;g;  s; ;+;g;
-# '
 STRING(){
   local in out=''
   [ $# -gt 0 ] && in="$*" || in="$(cat)"
@@ -83,19 +78,9 @@ STRING(){
     " "*) out="${out}+"; in="${in# }" ;;
     *) out="${out}${in%%[\\${CR}${BR}  + ]*}"; in="${in#"${in%%[\\${BR}${CR}   + ]*}"}" ;;
   esac; done
-  printf '%s' "$out"
+  printf '%s' "${out:-\\}"
 }
 
-UNSTRING='
-  :UNSTRING_X
-  s;((^|[^\\])(\\\\)*)\\n;\1\n;g;
-  s;((^|[^\\])(\\\\)*)\\t;\1\t;g;
-  s;((^|[^\\])(\\\\)*)\\r;\1\r;g;
-  s;((^|[^\\])(\\\\)*)\+;\1 ;g;
-  tUNSTRING_X;
-  s;((^|[^\\])(\\\\)*)\\\+;\1+;g;
-  s;\\\\;\\;g;
-'
 UNSTRING(){
   local in out=''
   [ $# -gt 0 ] && in="$*" || in="$(cat)"
@@ -109,7 +94,7 @@ UNSTRING(){
     \\*) in="${in#\\}" ;;
     *) out="${out}${in%%[\\+]*}"; in="${in#"${in%%[\\+]*}"}" ;;
   esac; done
-  printf '%s' "$out"
+  printf '%s\n' "$out"
 }
 
 DBM() {