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Removing blank spaces from text files in UNIX

 
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# 1  
Old 05-04-2010
Removing blank spaces from text files in UNIX
Hello,

I am an super newbie, so forgive my sheer ignorance. I have a series of text files formatted as follows (just showing the header and first few lines):

Code:
  mean_geo mean_raw        lat        lon
     0.000       0   -70.616   163.021
     0.000       0   -70.620   163.073
     0.000       0   -70.624   163.125
     0.000       0   -70.628   163.178
     0.000       0   -70.632   163.230
     0.000       0   -70.635   163.282

I want to convert these to csvs with 4 columns (mean_geo, mean_raw, lat, and lon), so I'd like to replace all blank spaces with commas. Note that the length of the blank spaces is variable.

Is it possible to do this in Unix?

Thanks.
Last edited by radoulov; 05-04-2010 at 03:38 AM.. Reason: Please use code tags!
# 2  
Old 05-04-2010
Use nawk on Solaris:


Code:
awk '$1=$1 _' OFS=, infile

# 3  
Old 05-04-2010
Beautiful. The only problem is that while Unix window shows all the blanks being changed to commas my original file still seems unchanged when opened with a text editor. Do I need to save the output to a new file?

Quote:
Originally Posted by radoulov
Use nawk on Solaris:


Code:
awk '$1=$1 _' OFS=, infile

# 4  
Old 05-04-2010
Yes:

Code:
awk > newfile '$1=$1 _' OFS=, infile

To modify the original file in-place (not recommended):

Code:
{ rm infile && awk '$1=$1 _' OFS=, > infile;} < infile

# 5  
Old 05-04-2010
What if I am doing a whole bunch of files? Can I use wildcards for batch processing?
# 6  
Old 05-04-2010
Yes:

Code:
perl -i.orig -ple'
  s/^\s*//; s/\s+/,/g
  ' *

You'll need to adjust the glob (*).
# 7  
Old 05-04-2010
Thank you

---------- Post updated at 02:06 AM ---------- Previous update was at 02:01 AM ----------

OK, I tried modifying in place but I get the following error:

{ rm test.txt && awk '$1=$1 _' OFS=, > test.txt;} < test.txt
{: Command not found.
}: Command not found.

I'm not sure I understand the batch commands - what is a glob? Can I use perl commands in a Unix shell? I am very, very new to all this.
 
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