How to split a document at a column

[boater_rich]

I need to insert a space (or any other delimiter for that matter) at the 25th column in a large text file. I have seen lots of ways of splitting a file on a delimiter, but I need to insert one at a consistent point. So how do I globally insert a space at a column in a file. Any assistance gratefully received. Thanks Rich

[davorg]

Use substr.

Something similar to this should work:

while (<>) {
  substr($_, 24, 0, ' ');
  print;
}

Or, from the command line:

$ perl -i~ -pe "substr($_, 24, 0, ' ')" your_file_name_here

[ikegami]

Two bugs:

• You'll die with an substr outside of string message if there are any blank or short lines.
• You'll add the space after the newline if line is one character less than the insert point.

Fix:

while (<>) {
  chomp;
  substr($_, 24, 0, ' ') if length() > 24;
  print("$_\n");
}

perl -i~ -ple "substr($_, 24, 0, ' ') if length() > 24" file

Tested.

[planetscape]

Perhaps you might wish to have a look at part - split up files according to column value.

[salva]

you can use substr for that:

perl -i.bak -ple 'substr($_, 25, 0, " ") if length > 24' filename.txt

[ikegami]

I find it odd that you add a space at the end of "1234567890123456789012345", but you don't add any spaces at the end of "123456789012345678901234".

[Ojosh!ro]

Isn't this something you can easily do with a regex?
Something along the lines of:


my $text = ''; # put your complete works of Willie here
my $separator = '|'; # and your separator here

$text =~ s/[\^\n]([^\$\n]{25})/$1$separator/sg;

print $text;

if( exists $aeons{strange} ){ die $death unless ( $death%2 ) }