Question

I have a string which i need to insert at a specific position in a file :

The file contains multiple semicolons(;) i need to insert the string just before the last “;”

Is this possible with SED ?

Please do post the explanation with the command as I am new to shell scripting

before :

adad;sfs;sdfsf;fsdfs

string = jjjjj

after

adad;sfs;sdfsf jjjjj;fsdfs

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

This might work for you:

echo 'adad;sfs;sdfsf;fsdfs'| sed 's/\(.*\);/\1 jjjjj;/'
adad;sfs;sdfsf jjjjj;fsdfs

The \(.*\) is greedy and swallows the whole line, the ; makes the regexp backtrack to the last ;. The \(.*\) make s a back reference \1. Put all together in the RHS of the s command means insert jjjjj before the last ;.