Replace character by blank


 
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# 1  
Old 06-26-2013
Replace character by blank

Hi all,

I have 89 columns,1200 rows in a flat file, some of the values are just '.' (the character dot). I want to replace them by nothing (blank), but when I do so, it affects the decimal numbers too. so 12.34 becomes 1234.

How can I just replace values which are only '.' with 1 white space?

Code:
Input

1.1 . . 2.2

Output

1.1   2.2

# 2  
Old 06-26-2013
Can you post what you have tried so far...
# 3  
Old 06-26-2013
i would suggest to use a "cut" you can use a loop to move the cut N times across the columns check for a value, then loop through the rows in a loop. The use of a nested loops. I have an example of using the cut and nested loops
Code:
for scene in `ls $dirname` 
do  
    if [ ! -d "${scene}" ]; then
        #this means its ...
        block.....Loop #function for single loop
        break  #exits the loops to give the counts
    fi
    currPath="${dirname}/${scene}"
    curFrame=`ls $currPath | wc -l`

    for line in `ls $currPath | cut -d "." -f 2- |sort | uniq`
    do
        count=`find $currPath -name "*.${line}"| wc -l `
        name1=$line #gives my my name per frame
        counttypes  #function "case statement"
    done #end for
    framecount=`expr ${framecount} + ${curFrame} `
done #end for

its may not be expert scripting but I am still learning it. Sorry had to edit some of the names and comments for posting...
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# 4  
Old 06-26-2013
I tried to sub the dots with white space

Code:
awk '{gsub( /./ , " ")'

# 5  
Old 06-26-2013
Code:
echo "1.1 . . 2.2" | sed 's/ \. \. /   /g'

1.1   2.2

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# 6  
Old 06-26-2013
Quote:
Originally Posted by in2nix4life
Code:
echo "1.1 . . 2.2" | sed 's/ \. \. /   /g'

1.1   2.2

this only works with the example values but doesn't work if i expand the data

Code:
 echo "1.1 . . 2.2 4.5 . ." | sed 's/ \. \. /   /g'
1.1   2.2 4.5 . .

# 7  
Old 06-26-2013
That was just an example to set you on your way. Since you didn't display an example of your file, this is just a guess, but it works when applied to a file:

Code:
cat file

1.1 . . 2.2  3.3 . . 4.4  5.5 . . 6.6  7.7 . . 8.8  9.9 . . 0.0  1.1 . . 2.2

sed 's/ \. \. /   /g' file

1.1   2.2  3.3   4.4  5.5   6.6  7.7   8.8  9.9   0.0  1.1   2.2

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