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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-06T10:42:57+00:00

I can’t seem to use a variable in a sed command, for example: sed

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I can’t seem to use a variable in a sed command, for example:

sed "24s/.*/"$ct_tname"/" file1.sas > file2.sas

I want $ct_tname the variable, not literally $ct_tname, which is what I keep getting.

Anybody know how to get this to work?

The problem is actually more complex and I omitted some information.

ct_fname="%let outputfile="/user/ct_"$1".csv";"

Here, $1 is the argument passed in at the start of my bash script (sed is being run inside a bash script).

This doesn’t run successfully, but it does run if I replace ct_fname with

ct_fname="%let table=ct_$1;"

Is there a way to get the first ct_fname to be passed successfully?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    you need to use double quotes (") instead of single quotes (').
    single quotes pass their content literally, without translating variables (expansion).

    try 

    sed "24s/.*/\"$ct_tname\"/" file1.sas > file2.sas

    btw, if you’re going to be editing a file (that is if file2.sas is a temporary file), you should be using ed instead.

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