sed puzzle

[Nathan Aubrey]

On Wednesday 05 December 2007 10:31:50 you wrote:
> On Wed, 5 Dec 2007, Nathan Aubrey wrote:
> > I need to replace some words with other words, but sometimes the words
> > are not present, so I need to add the words.
> > In a config file I use, it has the following field
> >
> > KIDS     :
> > Mother   : Amanda
> > Father   : Scott
> >
> >
> > It is easy to swap out the names of mother or father, as the variables
> > are there, but if I try to swap out a kids name and there is no kids
> > name already in place, how do I add it instead? Is it one command, or
> > must I test if the content is empty then add instead of replacing?
>
> If I understand you correctly, it would no different.
>
>
> sed -e 's/^\(KIDS[^:]*: \).*$/\1Newname/'
>
> Many ways to do this, but the above if there is or is not a name.
>
> > The field example cannot change as it's just the format I use...
> > I appreciate any insite, sed is a great tool, but man! what a beast!
>
>   Jeremy C. Reed
>
> p.s. I use sed constantly. Today, I wrote a simple script using sed to
> convert plain text to latex (special characters).
>
> sed \
>  -e 's/\\/BBaaCCkkSSllAAssHH/g' \
>  -e 's/\#/\\#/g' \
>  -e 's/\$/\\$/g' \
>  -e 's/\%/\\%/g' \
>  -e 's/\~/\\~/g' \
>  -e 's/\_/\\_/g' \
>  -e 's/\^/\\^/g' \
>  -e 's/{/\\{/g' \
>  -e 's/}/\\}/g' \
>  -e 's/\	/\~\~\~\~/g' \
>  -e 's/^ /\~/g' \
>  -e 's/  /\~\~/g' \
>  -e 's/^$/ \~ \\\\/g' \
>  -e 's/BBaaCCkkSSllAAssHH/\\textbackslash{}/g' \
>  -e 'G'	# double space

Exactly what I'm looking for! thank you.

nathan