I have several lines in a file that I want to replace a space with a tab.

For example:

111047 [tab] Julie Jones email@email.com

111047 [tab] Julie Jones [tab] email@email.com

I want to replace the space after the word "jones" with a tab.

How do I achieve that in Vi?

Please assist.

Thanks!

Run below in VI command mode:-

:%s/Jones /Jones[tab]/g

So if i have multiple lines with different names, how do I achieve that?

Thanks much!

You can use awk instead to put a tab before last column email id:-

awk ' { email=$NF; gsub(email,"\t"email,$NF); print $0 } ' input_file

Do you know how I could also achieve this in Vi?

Thanks!

try:

:1,$s/ \([^ ]*@\)/\t\1/