Emergency UNIX and Linux Support

Thanks guys! I was able to use this (placed in a script).

Code:

cat $INPUT/$file|sed -e"s/&/&/g" > temp

probably not the best for a gig+ sized file...

Because doing cat of a gig+ file will take a long time or may hand the terminal. Please avoid the cat
try this

Code:

sed -e"s/&/&/g"  input_file > output_file

hope it will work

hi,
use this:
vi filename
esc
:%s/&/&amp/
wq

Hi,
well i have a question suppose i have file called testdata.dat,i want to replace the word Mr. wid Miss and write the changes to the same file i.e testdata.dat,what will be syntax?

sed 's/Mr./Miss./g' testdata.dat > testdata.dat

would the above command work?

If the -i option is available on your sed version, just :

Code:

sed -i 's/Mr\./Miss./g' testdata

Note the backslash before the first dot :
If you don't put the backslash, it will match any character (dot has a special meaning in regular expression)
for example in the case someone is called "Mr.Mrimba"
see what will happen with or without the backslash:

Code:

$ echo "Mr.Mrimba" | sed 's/Mr./Miss./g'
Miss.Miss.mba

Code:

$ echo "Mr.Mrimba" | sed 's/Mr\./Miss./g'
Miss.Mrimba

---------- Post updated at 01:29 PM ---------- Previous update was at 01:24 PM ----------

So if the backslash is mandatory if you want to match the literal dot, otherwise it will be interpreted as a regular expression which may lead to unexpected parsing.

This will also work

#sed -i 's/&/&amp/' file_name