OT: Calling unix experts, Need "vi" assistance Options

[Rusty]

Sorry for the OT post.

I have a text file that I need to edit.

I need to edit every record on that file (record positions 34-37) to change whatever is in those positions (only) to a four digit number. What is currently in those positions varies dramatically.

My only text editor I have on the system is vi.

Anyone got a command I can use?

thanks,
Lawrence

[Gint]

Get this figured out yet? Here's a very simple solution and explanation. This assumes that each line only contains one "BA0...." string. Otherwise we'll have to use some of the positional commands some of these other "hacks" (and I mean that in the nicest way possible (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) ) listed. Also, all of this changes if the old replacement string has a data value that needs to relate to the replacement string. If the replacement string for every line will be the same, then it's this simple. If not, we have to be more creative.

cat tmpfile | sed 's/BA0..../BAO1234/g' > tmpfile_new

cat your file (tmpfile in this example), pipe it to sed. the "s" means substitute. Your sub-ing BA.... (that's four dots, or wildcards for one character each in regular expression speak) for the char set infollowing the next forward slash. In this case you would want to replace them with the sam BA0 and then the 4 character string you want to use as a replacement string. I used 1234 in this example. The > re-directs the new text to a new file, leaving the existing file intact. You can then rename the new file as necessary.

If you just run this

cat tmpfile | sed 's/BA0..../BAO1234/g'

without the file re-direct, you can see the output on your terminal display and verify it's what you want before creating the new file.

This should work on any Solaris system (I tested it on one to make certain). The systems standard path should have the location of sed and cat.