Text Manipulation

Or not so common...

Note: Brackets [ ] indicate that you need to change those places with appropriate substitutions. Typically there shouldn't be any brackets in the command.

 

Command Name: sed


Description:

This command replaces stings in a text file.


Replace the first instance of a string in each line of a file:

sed -i 's/[ToBeReplaced]/[Replacing]/' [TextFile]

Example:

sed -i 's/me/you/' text.txt

Replace every instance of a string in a file:

sed -i 's/[ToBeReplaced]/[Replacing]/g' [TextFile]

Example:

sed -i 's/me/you/g' text.txt

NOTE: If using this command on a Mac box there needs to be an extention added to the '-i' parameter as it requires it to create a backup of the file before it will edit it in-place.

sed -i [extention] 's/[ToBeReplaced]/[Replacing]/g' [TextFile]

Example:

sed -i .bk 's/me/you/g' text.txt

This will create a backup file named 'text.txt.bk' and then edit 'text.txt' in-place

Designed by EverTech Consulting