remove last 4 characters from a string


 
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# 1  
Old 11-20-2009
remove last 4 characters from a string

I'm tring to remove the last 4 characters from strings in a file i.e.

cat /tmp/test
iwishicouldremovethis
icouldremovethos

so i would end up with the last 4 characters from each of the above i.e.
this
thos

I thought of using cut -c ... but I'm not sure how many characters will precede the important "Last 4 characters i need".

Thanks for your help!
# 2  
Old 11-20-2009
You want to remove the last four characters or keep them?

You say remove them, then say:
Quote:
so i would end up with the last 4 characters from each of the above
this
thos
Remove
Code:
sed "s/....$//" file1
iwishicouldremove
icouldremove

Keep
Code:
sed "s/.*\(....$\)/\1/" file1
this
thos

This User Gave Thanks to Scott For This Post:
# 3  
Old 11-20-2009
bash
Code:
while read -r line
do
  echo ${line:(-4)}
done < "file"

This User Gave Thanks to ghostdog74 For This Post:
# 4  
Old 11-20-2009
or AWK
Code:
awk '{print substr($0,(length($0)-3))}' FILE


Last edited by danmero; 11-20-2009 at 11:26 AM.. Reason: Change [CODE] to [B]
This User Gave Thanks to danmero For This Post:
# 5  
Old 11-20-2009
Code:
while read line; do
  echo ${line%????}
done < infile



---------- Post updated at 22:39 ---------- Previous update was at 22:31 ----------

Code:
awk '{sub(/....$/,"")}1' infile



---------- Post updated at 22:43 ---------- Previous update was at 22:39 ----------

Code:
rev infile23|cut -c5-|rev

Smilie
This User Gave Thanks to Scrutinizer For This Post:
# 6  
Old 11-20-2009
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrutinizer

Code:
rev infile23|cut -c5-|rev

Smilie
Enough already! You need to get out more ;-)

ps: nice!
# 7  
Old 11-20-2009
Thanks Smilie, but actually all my examples are wrong because of the OP's first sentence. Oh well... I probably should get out more Smilie
Code:
rev infile23|cut -c-4|rev


Last edited by Scrutinizer; 11-20-2009 at 06:26 PM..
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