UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,

I posted something here about this yesterday but I can't seem to
find it. I needed help writting a script which would append a file
with new lines after every so many charachters.

Example: (my original flat file)

L60 LETTER OF CREDIT 60 DAYS W00 ON RECEIPT WIRE TRANSFER W30 NET 30 WIRE TR
ANSFER W45 NET 45 WIRE TRANSFER W60 NET 60 WIRE TRANSFER

I need to look like this:

L60 LETTER OF CREDIT 60 DAYS
W00 ON RECEIPT WIRE TRANSFER
W30 NET 30 WIRE TRANSFER
W45 NET 45 WIRE TRANSFER
W60 NET 60 WIRE TRANSFER

Basically, I needed a script that inserted a new line after so many chars.

This is the script someone helped me out with:

====
#!/usr/bin/nawk -f
#
###fold.awk
#

{
if (!width) width=31;
line = $0;
do {
newline = substr(line, 0, width);
if (newline !~ "^[ \t]*$") { print newline }
line = substr(line, width+1);
}
while (length(line) > 1);
}
====

This works great! However, now I'm having a problem with "line too long"
errors with extremely large files:

nawk: input record `0101100010HORSES AND...' too long
source line 16 of file /usr/local/bin/fold.awk

I know there is a limit in awk. Also, from the post from yesterday, someone
was really pushing an SED script. Can SED handle large lines?

Does someone know if I can do this another way or with the same
script? This is a hot one for me.

Thank you for this great board!

Thanks!

sed to the rescue... when all else fails LOL

Code:

sed 's/DAYS/DAYS\n/g;s/SFER/SFER\n/g' filename | sed 's/^ //;/^[ \t]*$/d'

where is the other thread... can't find it!

Can't find it either ....

Tanku, can you explain what the sed statement is doing. I hate
to be a pest.

Also, I need gnu sed for this, right?

Thanks!

Wait, I just realized what its saying. My problem is that the end
of line won't always be the same. I would like to use sed to insert
a new line after every so many charachters.

Thanks!

doesn't need gnu sed hopefully... did you try it? how is it?
what other words end on the line? we can add them

I could be dealing with thousands of records but the records are
at a set length. That's my problem.

I'm sorry, to be a bit more clear:

Thousands of records that could end many different ways.

Thanks!