Replace string in existing file

[Rich]

I am trying to replace the word "test" in a file with the word
"Change" without creating a new file using the following code:

#! /usr/bin/perl -w

open (IN, "+</path/to/file/test.html");

while (<IN>){
s/test/Change/;
print IN;
}

close IN;

The orignal file contains:

test 1

test 2

test 3

and my results are:

test 1

test 2

test 3
test 1
Change 1
test 3
Change 3

I am looking for the results to be:

Change 1

Change 2

Change 3

and that is what I get if I output the print to a new file or to
<STDOUT>.

What am I doing wrong? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[toylet]

you need remember and reset the file pointer before writing out the
result, right before "print IN".

#! /usr/bin/perl -w

open (IN, "+</path/to/file/test.html");

while (<IN>){
s/test/Change/;
print IN;
}

close IN;

--
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/ v \ http://www.linux-sxs.org
/( _ )\ Linux 2.4.22-xfs
^ ^ 4:58pm up 2 days 18:52 load average: 1.00 1.00 1.00

[Joe Smith]

Rich wrote:

I am trying to replace the word "test" in a file with the word
"Change" without creating a new file using the following code:

open (IN, "+</path/to/file/test.html");
while (<IN>){
s/test/Change/;
print IN;
}
close IN;

The obvious problem is that you're not using seek().

The not so obvious problem is that you're doomed to failure if the
file is longer than the standard I/O buffer.

If the input is like "test 19\n", then you'll be changing eight
character lines to ten character lines. After processing four
lines (32 bytes), you will have written four lines (40 bytes), and
the fifth line read will consist of nothing but overwritten bytes.

You may have to consider reading the entire file into memory,
performing the changes, seek to the beginning, print the data
all at once, and truncating the file to size (if it got smaller).
-Joe

[Rich]

df***@bee.net (Rich) wrote in message news:<eb**************************@posting.google. com>...

I am trying to replace the word "test" in a file with the word
"Change" without creating a new file using the following code:

#! /usr/bin/perl -w

open (IN, "+</path/to/file/test.html");

while (<IN>){
s/test/Change/;
print IN;
}

close IN;

The orignal file contains:

test 1

test 2

test 3

and my results are:

test 1

test 2

test 3
test 1
Change 1
test 3
Change 3

I am looking for the results to be:

Change 1

Change 2

Change 3

and that is what I get if I output the print to a new file or to
<STDOUT>.

What am I doing wrong? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Thank you both for the tips. I was not aware of the seek() function
and I am currently trying to learn how to use it correctly but I think
I'm on the right track. I will post my results.

Thanks - Rich

[Rich]

df***@bee.net (Rich) wrote in message news:<eb**************************@posting.google. com>...

I am trying to replace the word "test" in a file with the word
"Change" without creating a new file using the following code:

#! /usr/bin/perl -w

open (IN, "+</path/to/file/test.html");

while (<IN>){
s/test/Change/;
print IN;
}

close IN;

The orignal file contains:

test 1

test 2

test 3

and my results are:

test 1

test 2

test 3
test 1
Change 1
test 3
Change 3

I am looking for the results to be:

Change 1

Change 2

Change 3

and that is what I get if I output the print to a new file or to
<STDOUT>.

What am I doing wrong? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Got it! I had to hold the text in an array first though.

#! /usr/bin/perl -w

open (IN, "+</path/to/file/test.html");

@file = <IN>;

seek IN,0,0;

foreach $file (@file){
$file =~ s/test/Change/g;
print IN $file;
}
close IN;