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I have a file named A.xml which contains a strings such as "Ticket_Release1" and "Ticket_V2".

I want to find and replace all the strings in the file starting with Ticket_ with something called Ticket_Final.

Example, replace "Ticket_Release1" and "Ticket_V2" with "Ticket_Final" by searching for string Ticket_

Can you please help me here.

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3  
Please edit your question to include sample input and output data. Do these strings occur on new lines, are there other delimeters? etc... –  jasonwryan Jul 28 at 6:47
1  
How do you define a "string"? Is "Ticket 1" one string or two? Are the quotes (") part of the string? Should we assume that a string is anything starting with Ticket_ until the next whitespace character? How about fooTicket_1? Should that be counted? Please edit your question and clarify. –  terdon♦ Jul 28 at 7:20

1 Answer 1

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You could use sed:

sed -i.BACKUP 's/\"Ticket_.*\"/\"Ticket_Final\"/g' <xml_file>

Explanation:

-i.BACKUP : It will substitute on the same file, but will keep a backup called xml_file.BACKUP, just in case it doesn't work as desired.

s/ORIGINAL_REGEXP/SUBSTITUTION/g : Substitutes (s) the ORIGINAL_REGEXP for SUBSTITUTION, for every occurence (g).

\"Ticket_.*\" : Anything like Ticket_... between quotation marks.

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2  
\"Ticket_.*\" will match the longest possible string between tso quotes, better to use \"Ticket_[^"]*. –  User112638726 Jul 28 at 7:17
    
You are absolutely right, it will get every string till the final " it finds. But I think it is a must to still check for the first " it encounters, like \"Ticket_[^"]*\". But again it will accept anything just like "Ticket_" which I don't know if it is a requirement. –  Isaac Jul 28 at 7:27
    
Your global flag is not useful here. –  mikeserv Jul 28 at 7:40
    
Would you mind explaining why? As far as I have used sed, which is very basic, that g is there just in case there are several "Ticket_..." on the same line, otherwise just the first occurrence will be substituted. –  Isaac Jul 28 at 7:43
    
well, if there are several "Ticket_.*" matches on the same line, .* eats (at least) from the first through the last, and 1 is the most you can get out of it anyway. –  mikeserv Jul 28 at 7:48

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