How to add a character after the first word/space on each line?

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How to add a character after the first word/space on each line?

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01-18-2016

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How to add a character after the first word/space on each line?

Hi

I have a large file ( couple thousand lines ) and I'm trying to add a character after the first word/space on each line.
eg:

Code:

First line of text
Second line of text
Third line of text
Fourth line of text
Fifth line of text

I'd like to accomplish:

Code:

First - line of text
Second - line of text
Third - line of text
Fourth - line of text
Fifth - line of text

Thanks a lot!

martinsmith

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01-18-2016

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Hello martinsmith,

Could you please try following and let me know if this helps you.

Code:

awk '{$2="-" OFS $2} 1'  Input_file

Output will be as follows.

Code:

First - line of text
Second - line of text
Third - line of text
Fourth - line of text
Fifth - line of text

Thanks,
R. Singh

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Quote:

Originally Posted by RavinderSingh13

Hello martinsmith,

Could you please try following and let me know if this helps you.

Code:

awk '{$2="-" OFS $2} 1'  Input_file

Output will be as follows.

Code:

First - line of text
Second - line of text
Third - line of text
Fourth - line of text
Fifth - line of text

Thanks,
R. Singh

Thank you R. Singh. It works perfectly as i needed. Cheers

martinsmith

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01-18-2016

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Assuming that there is at least one space (or two words) on each line, you could also try the simpler:

Code:

sed 's/ / - /' file

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01-18-2016

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Quote:

Originally Posted by martinsmith

Thank you R. Singh. It works perfectly as i needed. Cheers

Your Welcome, also if you have blank lines too into your Input_file and you want to leave them as it is, then following may help you. Let's say following is the Input_file:

Code:

First line of text
Second line of text
Third line of text
Fourth line of text

Fifth line of text

Code:

awk 'NF{$2="-" OFS $2} 1'  Input_file

Output will be as follows.

Code:

First - line of text
Second - line of text
Third - line of text
Fourth - line of text

Fifth - line of text

Thanks,
R. Singh

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Thank you Don and R. Singh. The commands work perfectly as i was hoping to solve my problem. Thanks for the blank lines solution as well. Cheers

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01-20-2016

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what if we want to use it after second word.
thanks in advance.

bhupeshchavan

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