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Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Remove first 2 characters and last two characters of each line Post 302987905 by SkySmart on Saturday 17th of December 2016 10:56:33 PM
Old 12-17-2016
Remove first 2 characters and last two characters of each line

here's what im trying to do.

i have a file containing lines similar to this:

data.txt:
Code:
1hsRmRsbHRiSFZNTTA1dlEyMWFkbU5wUW5CSlIyeDFTVU5SYjJOSFRuWmpia0ZuWXpKV2FHTnRU
1lKUnpWMldrZFZaMG95V25oYQpSelEyWTBka2QyRklhSHBrUjA1b1kwUkJkd3BOVXpWM1lVaG5k
195Um5kaFZ6VnFURzFPZG1KVFFsQlZhVUp0WTFkU2RVOXVRbTVqClIyZzBZek5TYWxsWVFYZE5S
1wxWTBkb05FeHRaR2hqUjJ4MVdYazFhbUl5TUdkVU1VbG5DbHB1Um10aWFuQjNXak5DYjJWSVRq
22oKTWtaM1RVUkJla3h1UW05bFF6VnVXVmhDY0dKdFRYVlpNamwwU1VVNVUwbEhXbmhhUnpRMlkw
ZGtkMkZJYUhwa1IwNW9ZMFJCZDA1RApOWGNLWVVobmRWb3lSbmRoVnpWcVRHMU9kbUpUUWxCVmFV
66qRZMWRTZFU5dVFtNWpSMmcwWXpOU2FsbFlRWGROUkZWMVkwZG9ORXh0ClpHaGpSMngxV1hrMWFt

I need to remove the first two characters and the last two characters of each line. but i also need to be able to put those removed characters back to where they were before they were removed.

so, here's what i'm doing so far:

Code:
sed -e 's ..  ' -e  's ..$  ' data.txt > data.txt.pruned

This only removes the first two characters of each line and the last two.

where im getting stuck is, how do i get back the removed characters?

a thought that crossed my mind is to first get the first two characters of each line line. save it to a file and do the same for the last two characters.

Code:
some_magical_command data.txt > firstwo.characters
some_magical_command data.txt > lastwo.characters

then find a way to merge firstwo.characters and lastwo.characters with data.txt.pruned so they look like the original text in data.txt?

i suppose the commands join may be used here. but im looking for something that can work on all Unix systems (portable), especially those systems that are considered "embedded". if awk can be used here, that'll be great.

Last edited by SkySmart; 12-18-2016 at 12:05 AM..
 

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nljust(1)						      General Commands Manual							 nljust(1)

NAME
nljust - justify lines, left or right, for printing SYNOPSIS
digits] seq] just] mode] order] margin] width] ck] [file ...] DESCRIPTION
formats for printing data written in languages with a right-to-left orientation. It is designed to be used with the and the commands (see pr(1) and lp(1)). reads the concatenation of input files (or standard input if none are given) and produces on standard output a right-to-left formatted ver- sion of its input. If appears as an input file name, reads standard input at that point. Use to delimit the end of options. formats input files for all languages that are read from right to left. For languages that have a left-to-right orientation, the command merely copies input files to standard output. Options recognizes the following options: Justify data for all languages, including those having a left-to-right text orientation. By default only right-to-left language data is justified. For all other languages, input files are directly copied to standard output. Select enhanced printer shapes for some Arabic characters. With this option, two-character combinations of laam and alif are replaced by a single character. Triggers ISO 8859-6 interpretation of the data. Processes digits for output as hindi, western, or both. digits can be or both. Use seq as the escape sequence to select the primary character set. This escape sequence is used by languages that have too many characters to be accommodated by ASCII in a single 256-character set. In these cases, the seq escape sequence can be used to select the non-ASCII character set. The escape character itself(0x1b) is not given on the command line. Hewlett-Packard escape sequences are used by default. If just is left justify print lines. If just is right-justify print lines starting from the (designated or default) print width column. The default is right justification. Replace leading spaces with alternative spaces. Some right-to-left character sets have a non-ASCII or alternative space. This option can be useful when filtering out- put (see pr(1)). With right justification, the option causes line numbers to be placed immediately to the right of the tab character. Without the option, right justification causes line numbers to be placed at the print-width column. By default, leading spaces are not replaced by alternative spaces. Indicate mode of any file to be formatted. Mode refers to the text orientation of the file when it was created. If mode is assume Latin mode. If mode is assume non-Latin mode. By default, mode information is obtained from the environment variable. Do not terminate lines containing printable characters with a new-line. By default, print lines are terminated by new-lines. Indicate data order of any file to be formatted. The text orientation of a file can affect the way its data is arranged. If order is assume keyboard order. If order is assume screen order. By default, order information is obtained from the environment variable. Truncate print lines that do not fit the designated or default line length. Print lines are folded (that is, wrapped to next line) by default. Expand input tabs to column positions k+1, 2*k+1, 3*k+1, etc. Tab characters in the input are expanded to the appropriate number of spaces. If k is 0 or is omitted, default tab settings at every eighth position is assumed. If cd (any non-digit character) is given, it is treated as the input tab character. The default for c is the tab character. always expands input tabs. This option provides a way to change the tab character and setting. If this option is specified, at least one of the parameters c or k must be given. Designate a number as the print margin. The print margin is the column where truncation or folding takes place. The print margin determines how many characters appear on a single line and can never exceed the print width. The print margin is relative to the justifica- tion. If the print margin is 80, folding or truncation occurs at column 80 starting from the right during a right jus- tification. Similarly, folding or truncation occurs at column 80 starting from the left during a left justification. By default, the print margin is set to column 80. Designates a number as the print width. The print width is the maximum number of columns in the print line. Print width determines the start of text during a right justification. The larger the print width, the further to the right the text will start. By default, an 80-column print width is used. EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
Environment Variables The environment variable determines the mode and order of the file. The syntax of is [mode][_order]. mode describes the mode of a file where represents Latin mode and represents non-Latin mode. Non-Latin mode is assumed for values other than and order describes the data order of a file where is keyboard and is screen. Keyboard order is assumed for values other than and Mode and order information in can be overridden from the command line. The environment variable determines the direction of a language (left-to-right or right-to-left) and whether context analysis of characters is necessary. The environment variable determines whether a language has alternative numbers. The environment variable determines the language in which messages are displayed. International Code Set Support Single-byte character code sets are supported. EXAMPLES
Right justify on a 132-column printer with a print margin at column 80 (the default): Right justify output of with line numbers on a 132-column printer with a print margin at column 132: WARNINGS
If with line numbers option) is piped to the separator character must be a tab(0x09). It is the user's responsibility to ensure that the environment variable accurately reflects the status of the file. Mode and justification must be consistent. Only non-Latin-mode files can be right justified in a meaningful way. Similarly, only Latin- mode files can be safely left justified. If mode and justification do not match, the results are undefined. If present, alternative numbers always have a left-to-right orientation. The command is HP proprietary, not portable to other vendors' systems, and will not be provided in future HP-UX releases. AUTHOR
was developed by HP. SEE ALSO
forder(1), lp(1), pr(1), strord(3C). nljust(1)
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