Appending to a certain line in text

w3stfa11 · 11-08-2006, 07:59 PM

Is it possible to append to a certain line?

I have a list of things in a file followed by some numbers

record1 2 3 5
record2 2 3 4
record3 3 5 2

I'd like to append another number to record2. How would I do this?

I was trying out sed and /a, but it appends the text in a new line, which I don't want.

Thank you much.

Another similar question if y'all know. How can I edit the 2nd number of record1 (for example)?

homey · 11-08-2006, 08:33 PM

If the records can be accessed by line number, you could try this for the first part...

Code:

sed '2 s/.$/& new text here/' file.txt

and for the second part...

Code:

sed '1 s/./12/9' file.txt

theNbomr · 11-08-2006, 08:37 PM

Code:

awk -e 'NR==2 {print $0, "another number";}' <YourFileName>

--- rod.

w3stfa11 · 11-08-2006, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homey

If the records can be accessed by line number, you could try this for the first part...

Code:

sed '2 s/.$/& new text here/' file.txt

and for the second part...

Code:

sed '1 s/./12/9' file.txt

That works wonderfully. Thank you very much. I'm going to have to tweak the second part somehow because the numbers may have 1, 2, or 3 digits.

Thanks again!

Edit: Actually, I have one question. For the first part, it makes the changes and outputs it to stdout. How can I make the changes within the file?

homey · 11-08-2006, 10:01 PM

Edit: scratch that last idea on part 2
Gotta get some sleep.

theNbomr · 11-09-2006, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by w3stfa11

Edit: Actually, I have one question. For the first part, it makes the changes and outputs it to stdout. How can I make the changes within the file?

Add the '-i' switch to your sed command line to perform edits 'in place'. Optionally, add a suffix to the -i switch to cause it to create a backup with the suffix appended as a filename extension.

man sed

--- rod.