api: YAML JSON TOON Database
version: 1.0.0
format: toon
dataset:
  id: 2478
  slug: sed-reference
  title: Sed Reference
  description: "Common sed commands, substitutions, and flags."
  summary: "sed stream-editor patterns: substitution, in-place edits, deleting and printing lines, inserting and appending, regex groups, multiple commands and address ranges, extended with line deletion by pattern, nth-occurrence replacement, case-insensitive matching, trailing-whitespace removal and alternate delimiters."
  use_when[2]: You need a one-line text substitution or line filter.,You need the idiom for a common sed task.
  caveats[2]: sed -i behaves differently on GNU and BSD/macOS (macOS needs -i '' ); use a suffix such as -i.bak for portability and safety.,The I flag for case-insensitive matching is a GNU extension.
  related[4]: awk-reference,unix-text-processing-commands,file-operations,shell-scripting-guide
  entry_count: 16
  fields[3]{section,field,type,example}:
    data,pattern,string,Substitute
    data,command,string,sed 's/foo/bar/g' file
    data,description,string,Replace all occurrences of foo with bar globall…
  category: Unix Commands
  category_slug: unix-commands
  tags: "unix,sed,text-processing,stream-editor"
  view_count: 21
  created_at: 1792832553
  updated_at: 1792832553
data[16]{pattern,command,description}:
  Substitute,sed 's/foo/bar/g' file,Replace all occurrences of foo with bar globally.
  In-place edit,sed -i 's/foo/bar/g' file,Edit file in place; use -i.bak for backup.
  Delete lines,sed '3d' file,Delete line 3. Use /pattern/d for pattern match.
  Print lines,"sed -n '5,10p' file",Print lines 5 through 10 only.
  Insert/append,"sed '3i\\nNew line' file",Insert text before line 3.
  Regex group,"sed 's/(\\d+)/[\\1]/g'",Capture digits in parentheses and wrap in brackets.
  Multiple commands,sed -e 's/a/A/g' -e 's/e/E/g',Apply multiple substitution commands.
  Address range,"sed '1,5s/old/new/' file",Substitute only in lines 1 through 5.
  Delete blank lines,sed '/^$/d' file,Remove all empty lines.
  Print a specific line,sed -n '5p' file,Print only line 5; -n suppresses default output.
  Print the last line,sed -n '$p' file,The $ address means the last line.
  Replace the Nth occurrence,sed 's/foo/bar/2' file,Replace only the second occurrence on each line.
  Case-insensitive substitute,sed 's/foo/bar/Ig' file,"GNU sed: the I flag ignores case."
  Substitute within matching lines,sed '/error/s/foo/bar/g' file,Apply the substitution only on lines containing 'error'.
  Strip trailing whitespace,"sed 's/[ \\t]*$//' file",Remove spaces and tabs at the end of each line.
  Use another delimiter,sed 's|/usr/local|/opt|g' file,Choose a delimiter other than / when the pattern contains slashes.