On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 10:38 AM, tony polkich <[email protected]> wrote:
> In -->      grep $VAR afile.txt | sed 's/ ? / newdata/' > anotherfile.txt
>
> what do I insert where the question mark is in sed? $VAR and variations 
> haven't worked.

Try changing the single quotes to double quotes. So:

grep $VAR afile.txt | sed "s/$VAR/ newdata/" > anotherfile.txt

Or, more simply:

sed "s/$VAR/ newdata/" afile.txt > anotherfile.txt

Variables, like $VAR, are not expanded inside single quotes.

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Norman Gaywood, Computer Systems Officer
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