How do I remove first 5 characters in each line in a text file using vi?
RegexUnixTextCommandViRegex Problem Overview
How do I remove the first 5 characters in each line in a text file?
I have a file like this:
4 Alabama
4 Alaska
4 Arizona
4 Arkansas
4 California
54 Can
8 Carolina
4 Colorado
4 Connecticut
8 Dakota
4 Delaware
97 Do
4 Florida
4 Hampshire
47 Have
4 Hawaii
I'd like to remove the number and the space at the beginning of each line in my txt file.
Regex Solutions
Solution 1 - Regex
:%s/^.\{0,5\}// should do the trick. It also handles cases where there are less than 5 characters.
Solution 2 - Regex
Use the regular expression ^..... to match the first 5 characters of each line. use it in a global substitution:
:%s/^.....//
Solution 3 - Regex
As all lines are lined up, you don't need a substitution to solve this problem. Just bring the cursor to the top left position (gg), then: CTRL+vGwlx
Solution 4 - Regex
I think easiest way is to use cut.
just type cut -c n- <filename>
Solution 5 - Regex
Try
:s/^.....//
You probably don't need the "^" (start of line), and there'd be shortcuts for the 5 characters - but simple is good :)
Solution 6 - Regex
Since the text looks like it's columnar data, awk would usually be helpful. I'd use V to select the lines, then hit :! and use awk:
:'<,'>! awk '{ print $2 }'
to print out the second column of the data. Saves you from counting spaces altogether.
Solution 7 - Regex
:%s/^.\{0,5\}//g for global, since we want to remove first 5 columns of each line for every line.
Solution 8 - Regex
In my case, to Delete first 2 characters Each Line I used this :%s/^.\{0,2\}// and it works with or without g the same.
I am on a VIM - Vi IMproved 8.2, macOS version, Normal version without GUI.