[jlaanep]

Hello,

I'm attempting to manipulate a large data file. What I'm attempting to do is find a bracket '(' then on the same line find a character followed by a ',' ([A-Za-z],) then on the same line find a space then delete the space and everything after it on that line.

So far what I've been able to come up with results in an error (E488: Triailing Characters). I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong as my vi and reg expressions are basic at best. If someone could manipulate what I have or offer some suggestions that would be great.

Here's what I've come up with (both result in the same error):

s/(/;/[A-Za-z],/;/\ //

s/\(/;/[A-Za-z]\,/;/\ //


TIA

[lotuseclat79]

Hi jlaanep,

I would not use vi for this problem, but nawk which is a variant of awk since it contains substring functions that can simplify what you are trying to do - i.e. each line you are interested in must contain a '(', followed by some characters and a ',' followed by zero or more characters and a space - at which time you delete from the position of the space to the end of the line.

Try to search for an awk, gawk or nawk tutorial on the Internet, and learn how to invoke an awk program in a file, as your processing requirements are more than just simple enough to use vi and regular expressions.

-- Tom

P.S. Reference: The AWK Programming Language by Aho, Kernighan, and Weinberger, Addison-Wesley Series in Computer Science

[TerryNet]

:g/\(([A-Za-z],[^ ]*\) .*/s//\1

colon g slash backslash leftparen leftparen leftbracket A-Za-z rightbracket comma leftbracket ^ space rightbracket asterisk backslash rightparen space period asterisk slash s slash slash backslash 1

[jlaanep]

Thanks to the both of you! I'll look up both of these tomorrow (or I guess today now) when I get into work!

I'll let you know how it goes and the solution I found.

jlaanep.

[TerryNet]

I must admit to disappointment that we haven't heard back from you. If I misunderstood your requirements I would be happy to try to make changes.

[jlaanep]

Hello again guys!

Sorry about not responding fast but I had a server down and haven't had a chance to look at the search/replace until this morning.

Terry, your search/replace string did the trick, thanks again!

JL.

[TerryNet]

You're welcome. Glad it worked for you. You can mark this "Solved" using the button at the upper left of your first post.