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Replace specific positions in a file

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# 1  
Old 03-01-2019
Here is a way to play with awk

Code:
akshay@db-3325:/tmp$ cat file
H0187459823 172SMITH, JOE
H0112345678 172DOE, JANE

akshay@db-3325:/tmp$ awk '{print substr($0,1,3)"<put_your_string>"substr($0,13)}' file
H01<put_your_string>172SMITH, JOE
H01<put_your_string>172DOE, JANE

These 2 Users Gave Thanks to Akshay Hegde For This Post:
Diver181 dodona
# 2  
Old 03-01-2019
thank you. it worked.

--- Post updated at 07:23 PM ---

Sure. Thank you. Will do.
By the way In my example above both numbers have trailing spaces of 2 characters which makes each of length 10.
Starting position, for both lines, is 4 and ending position is 13 (includes 2 spaces at the end).
This User Gave Thanks to Diver181 For This Post:
dodona
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