Find variable word and replace it in file using Bash [duplicate]

Question

I have a file and from this file I am trying to find a word and replace it with another word using Bash. I am using sed to do this and please note that the word that I am looking for is an output from a command. So I am trying to find a word, which is the output of a command, and replace it with another word and override the previous word.

This is my code:

File=file.txt
File2=file2.txt
min=$(cat $File2 | grep word);  
sed -i 's/$min/max/g' $File

It's not producing any error, but I am unable to find the word in order to replace it. When I manually type the word rather than using the variable "$min" it works just fine. So when I do this, it works:

sed -i 's/min/max/g' $File

but when I do this, it doesn't:

 sed -i 's/$min/max/g' $File

I am thinking maybe sed doesn't accept variables as a search string. Any idea how I can achieve this?

thank you.

Variables aren't expanded within single quotes.

Biffen
– Biffen

2017-03-09 12:32:27 +00:00
Commented Mar 9, 2017 at 12:32 — Biffen
– Biffen, Commented Mar 9, 2017 at 12:32
Thanks for. I changed it to double quotes and it worked.

Dr.Bake
– Dr.Bake

2017-03-15 10:54:13 +00:00
Commented Mar 15, 2017 at 10:54 — Dr.Bake
– Dr.Bake, Commented Mar 15, 2017 at 10:54

aicastell · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-09 12:37:01Z

2

Use double quotes for the sed expression, this should work:

sed -i "s/$min/max/g" $File

answered Mar 9, 2017 at 12:37

aicastell

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1 Comment

Dr.Bake Over a year ago

Thanks a lot for your help :)

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