Batch / Find And Edit Lines in TXT file

Solution 1:

On a native Windows install, you can either use batch(cmd.exe) or vbscript without the need to get external tools. Here's an example in vbscript:

Set objFS = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
strFile = "c:\test\file.txt"
Set objFile = objFS.OpenTextFile(strFile)
Do Until objFile.AtEndOfStream
    strLine = objFile.ReadLine
    If InStr(strLine,"ex3")> 0 Then
        strLine = Replace(strLine,"ex3","ex5")
    End If 
    WScript.Echo strLine
Loop    

Save as myreplace.vbs and on the command line:

c:\test> cscript /nologo myreplace.vbs  > newfile
c:\test> ren newfile file.txt

Solution 2:

There is no search and replace function or stream editing at the command line in XP or 2k3 (dont know about vista or beyond). So, you'll need to use a script like the one Ghostdog posted, or a search and replace capable tool like sed.

There is more than one way to do it, as this script shows:

@echo off
    SETLOCAL=ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION

    rename text.file text.tmp
    for /f %%a in (text.tmp) do (
        set foo=%%a
        if !foo!==ex3 set foo=ex5
        echo !foo! >> text.file) 
del text.tmp