using sed/awk to replace a block of text in a file?


 
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# 1  
Old 11-29-2011
using sed/awk to replace a block of text in a file?

My apologies if this has been answered in a previous post. I've been doing a lot of searching, but I haven't been able to find what I was looking for. Specifically, I am wondering if I can utilize sed and/or awk to locate two strings in a file, and replace everything between those two strings (including the strings themselves) with new text.

For example, lets say I have a file with the following text:

Code:
"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" is an English-language program, that is, a phrase that contains all of the letters of the alphabet. It has been used to test typewriters and computer keyboards.

And I want it to read like this:

Code:
"Then the quick onyx goblin jumps over the lazy dwarf" is an English-language program, that is, a phrase that contains all of the letters of the alphabet. It has been used to test typewriters and computer keyboards.

How do I go about replacing
Code:
"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"

with
Code:
"Then the quick onyx goblin jumps over the lazy dwarf"

? Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
# 2  
Old 11-29-2011
this can help you..
Quote:
sed 's/The quick brown fox/Then the quick onyx goblin/g' <filename
# 3  
Old 11-29-2011
Like this?
Code:
sed 's/The/Then the/;s/brown fox/onyx goblin/;s/dog/dwarf/' input_file

--ahamed
# 4  
Old 11-29-2011
Thank you for the replies. There was one thing though that I may have not been clear about. There would be times where everything in the middle of the two strings could be different. For example:

Code:
The quick brown fox.... dogs

or
Code:
The time to feed the .... dogs

or
Code:
The man ran for his life away from the dogs

In each case, what was between the words "The" and "dogs" is fluid. It could possibly be anything, and I wouldn't know beforehand. I need a mechanism that would look for the word "The" and the word "dog" and replace everything in between (including the word The and dog) with something else.

Does that make sense? If need be, I can give you a more specific example of what I am working with (a CSV) and what I am trying to do. Thanks again.
# 5  
Old 11-29-2011
Try
Code:
sed 's/The.*dog/whatever/' inputfile

EDIT: Note that .* will match the longest available string though, e.g.
Code:
# echo "The quick brown fox fell over the dog" | sed 's/The.*dog/whatever/'
whatever
# echo "The quick brown fox fell over the dog and some other dogs and cats" | sed 's/The.*dog/whatever/'
whatevers and cats

This User Gave Thanks to CarloM For This Post:
# 6  
Old 11-29-2011
Try the following to replace whatever you want in between "The" and the first occurrence of "dog":
Code:
# echo "The quick brown fox fell over the dog and some other dogs and cats" | perl -e '$x=<>;$x=~s/The.+?dog/whatever/;print $x'
whatever and some other dogs and cats

This User Gave Thanks to balajesuri For This Post:
# 7  
Old 11-30-2011
I've tried some suggestions with the real case I have, but I haven't had any success. Perhaps if I show you what I am working with it will make more sense. The following is a CSV file that I am working on:

Code:
 eDir Top N Report , logoRpt 
 All LAN Interface for ACCESS 
 Shown: Errors above 1.0 K or BW Util above 70.0 

  , Errors , BW Util 
  ,   , % 
  , Above , Above 
  ,  ,  
 Element , 1.0 K , 70.0 
 cat65-acomp-d,FastEthernet4/18 ,974787.00000000,0.03142596
 ios6-zdc-g2,TenGigabitEthernet6/4 ,887644.00000000,0.42693967
 ios6-dc-a,GigabitEthernet2/12 ,71172.00000000,12.59653282

What I am trying to make it look at is the following:

Code:
 Hostname,Interface,Number of Errors,Bandwidth Utilization
 cat65-acomp-d,FastEthernet4/18 ,974787.00000000,0.03142596
 ios6-zdc-g2,TenGigabitEthernet6/4 ,887644.00000000,0.42693967
 ios6-dc-a,GigabitEthernet2/12 ,71172.00000000,12.59653282

The bold parts are the items that are actually changing. So in this case, the report I run will always start with "eDir" and end with "70.0" (The second occurrence for those eagle eyed). I want that replaced with what is in the second example. Any chance on getting that to work? Thank you again for all your help, I do appreciate it.
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