I have a php file that contains a couple of variables:
$test=0;
$test2=0;

How can I find and replace only the first 0 so that it is $test=1?

This is just an example, not my actual code or variables. I essentially want to find a string in the file, and only the first occurrence of that string and replace it. The string will be on more than 1 line, but I only want the first occurrence on the first line it comes across to be replaced:


this doesn't work:
sed -i -e 's/0/1/'

that replaces all instances of 0 in the file with 1. Help please...

Do you mean:

• The first line in the file?
• The first time that "$test" appears?
• The first time that "0" appears?

read up on SED addressing---eg:

sed '/address/command' ##act on all lines containing "address"
sed '/stop/,/start/command' ##act on all lines from one containing "start" to one containing "stop", inclusive
sed '4,8command' ##act on line numbers 4-8

Good SED tutorial here:
http://www.grymoire.com/Unix/

Lately I found out grep and awk are extremely usefull tools for situations like that.
I would have to think a little more about how to combine grep/awk with sed, but I guess that'd be one way to go.

See the sed faq

I mean, the first time 0 appears. I'm sorry for the original post not being very clear.

<?php

$test=0;
$variable=280;

?>

In the above php, I'd only want the first time that 0 appears to be change. Otherwise, it could affect $variable...make sense?