How to replace a string in an existing file in Perl

user_831579 0
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I want to replace the word "blue" with "red" in all text files named as 1_classification.dat, 2_classification.dat and so on. I want to edit the same file so I tried the following code, but it does not work. Where am I going wrong?

@files = glob("*_classification.dat");
foreach my $file (@files)
{
    open(IN,$file) or die $!;
    <IN>;
    while(<IN>)
    {
        $_ = '~s/blue/red/g';
        print IN $file;
    }
    close(IN)
}
perl regex
4 Answers

It can be done using a single line:

perl -pi.back -e 's/oldString/newString/g;' inputFileName

Pay attention that oldString is processed as a Regular Expression.
In case the string contains any of {}[]()^$.|*+? (The special characters for Regular Expression syntax) make sure to escape them unless you want it to be processed as a regular expression.
Escaping it is done by \, so \[.

user_1957870
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