Batch search & replace according to a text file

[Sandy Harris <sandyinchina -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Geoff Lane <geoff -at- gjctech -dot- co -dot- uk> wrote:

> ... Broberg, Mats wrote;
>
> > Dear all,
>
> > I need to search for approx. 250 different expressions in each and
> > one of approx. 5,000 different XML files. For each match, I need the
> > function to replace the expression with another expression that can
> > be specified in an external text file (where also each original
> > expression is stated). The expression is an if-clause that is
> > surrounded by special tags, so there is no risk expressions in the
> > body text will be replaced.
>
> > I suppose this could be done by a script or something like that? Any
> > script experts out there?
> ---
>
> This should be straightforward in VBScript, VBA, PHP, and a few other
> languages. For VBScript and VBA, check out the FileSystemObject
> object, Folder and File objects, and their properties and methods.
>
Unix (hence Linux) has had 'sed', the stream editor, since the 70s.
It reads an input file, applies the editing commands, and writes an
output file with the changed text. Simple commands can be
provided on the command line. Alternately, you can tell it to read
commands from a file.

A typical command might look like this:

/^[0-9]/s/Fred/&eric/

/^[0-9]/ is a pattern matching test. The command will be applied
only to lines that match the pattern, here to lines beginning (^)
with a digit ([0-9]).

The rest is the command, s is substitute and the whole thing
replaces Fred with Frederic.

For more complex text processing, languages like awk (also
on all Unix systems) or PERL (on nearly all modern Unix, and
readily available, free, for Windows). or PHP or ... will do the
job.
--
Sandy Harris
Zhuhai, Guangdong, China


--
Sandy Harris
Zhuhai, Guangdong, China
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