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I'm trying to insert a string into multiple lines using sed, but i don't get the desired result

I have this:

<p begin="540960420t" end="600189590t" xml:id="subtitle8">-Some text.<br/>-Some more text</p>
<p begin="601020420t" end="653572920t" xml:id="subtitle9">-Something else<br/>Some more text</p>
<p begin="654403750t" end="731560830t" xml:id="subtitle10">More words<br/>-more text</p>
<p begin="732401670t" end="786625840t" xml:id="subtitle11">Some text.<br/>Some more text</p>

and I need to insert this

<span style="style0">

Before the "subtitle[0-200]"> so it will be like this:

<p begin="540960420t" end="600189590t" xml:id="subtitle8"><span style="style0">-Some text.<br/>-Some more text</p>
<p begin="601020420t" end="653572920t" xml:id="subtitle9"><span style="style0">-Some text.<br/>Some more text</p>

etc...

I was trying something like this:

cat demo.xml | sed 's/xml:id="subtitle[0-9]">/<span style="style0"><p/g'

But this replaces the xml:id="subtitle[0-9]"> and only from subtitle0 to subtile9

I am quite new to all this sed and regexp thing, if something else should be easier than sed then it's fine ..

Best Regards Soren

4
  • Before or after?
    – ctrl-alt-delor
    Jun 7, 2015 at 18:53
  • Are the blank lines actually part of your input file? Are all lines in that format or should some lines be ignored?
    – terdon ♦
    Jun 7, 2015 at 19:03
  • No, there are no blank lines, I just made those blank line for better overview, should have mentioned that. No lines should be ignored.
    – SH1986
    Jun 7, 2015 at 21:26
  • Where do you close that span tag?
    – glenn jackman
    Jun 8, 2015 at 16:55

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

You can do:

sed 's/subtitle[0-9]\{1,3\}">/&<span style="style0">/'

This matches the subtitle[0-200] by matching 1 to 3 digits using the \{1,3\} and replaces this with the matched pattern with the <span style... added.

If you input:

<p begin="540960420t" end="600189590t" xml:id="subtitle8">-Some text.<br/>-Some more text</p>

<p begin="601020420t" end="653572920t" xml:id="subtitle9">-Something else<br/>Some more text</p>

<p begin="654403750t" end="731560830t" xml:id="subtitle10">More words<br/>-more text</p>

<p begin="732401670t" end="786625840t" xml:id="subtitle11">Some text.<br/>Some more text</p>

This will output

<p begin="540960420t" end="600189590t" xml:id="subtitle8"><span style="style0">-Some text.<br/>-Some more text</p>

<p begin="601020420t" end="653572920t" xml:id="subtitle9"><span style="style0">-Something else<br/>Some more text</p>

<p begin="654403750t" end="731560830t" xml:id="subtitle10"><span style="style0">More words<br/>-more text</p>

<p begin="732401670t" end="786625840t" xml:id="subtitle11"><span style="style0">Some text.<br/>Some more text</p>
4
  • 1
    Replace \{1,3\} with + to get sed 's/subtitle[0-9]+">/&<span style="style0">/' unless it is important for it to go wrong with numbers of more than 3 digits. + means one or more of the previous thing.
    – ctrl-alt-delor
    Jun 7, 2015 at 18:59
  • I think + is ERE which isn't supported by POSIX sed
    – bkmoney
    Jun 7, 2015 at 19:38
  • you are correct, you need to use \+.
    – ctrl-alt-delor
    Jun 7, 2015 at 19:58
  • I found out that this sed 's/subtitle[0-9]\{1,3\}">/&<span style="style0">/' was the best one for me.
    – SH1986
    Jun 7, 2015 at 20:05
1

If all your lines are as you show, all you need to do is enter the new string after the first > on each line:

$ sed 's/>/><span style="style0">/' file 
<p begin="540960420t" end="600189590t" xml:id="subtitle8"><span style="style0">-Some text.<br/>-Some more text</p>

<p begin="601020420t" end="653572920t" xml:id="subtitle9"><span style="style0">-Something else<br/>Some more text</p>

<p begin="654403750t" end="731560830t" xml:id="subtitle10"><span style="style0">More words<br/>-more text</p>

<p begin="732401670t" end="786625840t" xml:id="subtitle11"><span style="style0">Some text.<br/>Some more text</p>
3
  • I can see that this one will add <span style="style0"> after the <br/> also.
    – SH1986
    Jun 7, 2015 at 20:06
  • @SH1986 no, it only replaces the first > not all. You need the g flag to replace more.
    – terdon ♦
    Jun 7, 2015 at 22:06
  • Took the words right out of my mouth man. I had to look twice at it because I was trying to look for some occurrence shortcut at first, but it was very soon apparent that the problem was how to insert a second <...> after the first <...>.
    – mikeserv
    Jun 8, 2015 at 0:45

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