What about something like:

$ cat file
KIDS    :
Mother  : Amanda
Father  : Scott

$ cat file | sed 's/:.*/: bob/g'
KIDS    : bob
Mother  : bob
Father  : bob

Not sure what you are trying to do, but the point is that using .* is 
probably what you want (it matches even if there is nothing in the field).

-Charles



Nathan Aubrey wrote:
> All,
>
> 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?
>
> 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!
>
>
>   

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