Deleting 1st 20 (or so) columns and adding text

[missing_cipher]

Sorry, I didn't know how to name the topic.

But, basically, what I have is:

Code: Select all

2008-09-05-23:00,534,2012387975
2008-09-05-23:00,534,2012866888
2008-09-05-23:00,534,2012894626
2008-09-05-23:00,534,2013045974
2008-09-05-23:00,534,2013048601
2008-09-05-23:00,534,2013049556
2008-09-05-23:00,534,2013123625
2008-09-05-23:00,534,2014285243
2008-09-05-23:00,534,2014285467
2008-09-05-23:00,534,2014673009

And I need it to be:

Code: Select all

xxxxx+2012387975
xxxxx+2012866888
xxxxx+2012894626
xxxxx+2013045974
xxxxx+2013048601
xxxxx+2013049556
xxxxx+2013123625
xxxxx+2014285243
xxxxx+2014285467
xxxxx+2014673009

I work with a lot of files at a time, so maybe a script is better? I don't know.

My manual procedure now is selecting the first 20 rows, deleting them and then Searching for '^p' and replacing with 'xxxxx+'.

How can I automate my task?

Cheers.

[pietzcker]

Activate Perl regular expressions (check the readme topic of this forum for instructions).
Then search for

^.{20}

and "replace all" with

xxxxx+

HTH,
Tim

[missing_cipher]

Thanks a lot, man. You saved me hours of work.

Cheers!