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How to insert at a particular position in flat file

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# 1  
Old 08-07-2007
How to insert at a particular position in flat file
Hi All,
I have a flat file with ~ as de-limiter (e.g: aaa~ba a~caa~0~d~e)
What I want is check if the 4th character is 0 and replace it with say 4. So now it becomes : aaa~ba a~caa~4~d~e.

I have to do this for the whole file, but the delimiter position remains the same, not the character length.

Please help.
Abhi.
# 2  
Old 08-07-2007
Try this..

Code:
awk -F"~" '{if ($4==0) $4=4; print $0;}' filename

# 3  
Old 08-07-2007
To start:
Code:
pattern=$1
rep_string=$2
awk -F\~ -v pat=${pattern} -v rep=${rep_string} 'BEGIN{OFS=FS}{if ( $4 == pat){sub(/'"${pattern}"'/,rep,$4)}print}' txt

Last edited by Klashxx; 08-07-2007 at 05:59 AM..
# 4  
Old 08-07-2007
cat filename | cut -d "~" -f 4|sed -e 's/0/4/'
# 5  
Old 08-07-2007
Code:
awk -F'~' 'BEGIN{OFS="~";}{ if ($4 != 4){$4=4;} print }' your_file

As per the req it should have been like

Code:
awk -F'~' 'BEGIN{OFS="~";}{ if ($4 == 0){$4=4;} print }' your_file

Last edited by lorcan; 08-07-2007 at 06:06 AM.. Reason: Changing as per req
# 6  
Old 08-07-2007
Quote:
Originally Posted by jacoden
Try this..

Code:
awk -F"~" '{if ($4==0) $4=4; print $0;}' filename

Hi Jacoden

I tried it , but i have lost my de-limiters '~' and got only space instead.

Abhi.
# 7  
Old 08-07-2007
Quote:
Originally Posted by lorcan
Code:
awk -F'~' 'BEGIN{OFS="~";}{ if ($4 != 4){$4=4;} print }' your_file

Thanks a lot this works.

Abhi.
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