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 --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss