Question

I need to make SED replace . with .*space* inside a tag… I did it, but i need to make it just replace IF there is no space after the . – It will be a patch proccess. 1600 files.

example:

sed -i -e "/<b>/ {s/\./\. /}" file.txt will make sed replace . with .*space*
from this:

<div class="pontos"><b>TERMINAL V.OFICINAS</b></div>

to this

<div class="pontos"><b>TERMINAL V. OFICINAS</b></div>

but what if in a file, i already have

i need to make sed just replace if there is no space after the dot.

If possible, explain what will act as the “if” in the expression.
Thank you.

PS: awk can be used too.

Answer 1

 sed 's/\.\([^ ]\)/. \1/g' input

 \.\([^ ]\): match a dot followed by a non-space character,
             also remember the non-space character

 . \1      : replace the match with a dot, space, and the
             non-space character