bash replace string code example

Example 1: bash replace substring

echo [string] | sed "s/[original]/[target]/g"

Example 2: bash script: replace . with :

#To replace the first occurrence of a pattern with a given string,
#use ${parameter/pattern/string}:

#!/bin/bash
firstString="I love Suzi and Marry"
secondString="Sara"
echo "${firstString/Suzi/$secondString}"    

# prints 'I love Sara and Marry'

#To replace all occurrences, use ${parameter//pattern/string}:

message='The secret code is 12345'
echo "${message//[0-9]/X}"           
# prints 'The secret code is XXXXX'


#(This is documented in the Bash Reference Manual, §3.5.3 "Shell Parameter Expansion".)

Example 3: bash replace substring in string

#!/bin/bash
firstString="I love Suzi and Marry"
secondString="Sara"
echo "${firstString/Suzi/$secondString}"    
# prints 'I love Sara and Marry'

Example 4: bash replace beginning of string

$ cat shortest.sh
#! /bin/bash

filename="bash.string.txt"

echo ${filename#*.}
echo ${filename%.*}

$ ./shortest.sh
After deletion of shortest match from front: string.txt
After deletion of shortest match from back: bash.string

Example 5: bash search and replace text in file

# Basic syntax using awk:
awk '{gsub(regex, substitution_text, $field#); print $0;}' input_file
# Where:
#	- gsub is a function that replaces every regular expression (regex)
#		match with substitution_text. 
#	- $field# is optional but can be used to specify a particular field
#		where gsub should operate. (This is useful if you want to 
#		restrict the substitutions to a specific column)

# Example usage:
awk '{gsub(" ","",$0); print $0;}' input_file
# This replaces every space " " with nothing "", thereby eliminating all
# whitespace from the file