Setting a Column to a fixed value in a text file

[Chuck Ballinger]

Next to set specific column within a large text file to a specific value, say Column 10 = “X”, column 32 = “Z” etc.
Can I do this with a macro or ??

[cipher-1024]

Yes, you probably can.

You’re going to have to give more details about the text you’re trying to format to get a better answer than that though. What defines a ‘column’ (tabs, commas, special characters)? Are the columns encapsulated in quotes? If you can give some specifics and maybe several example lines from the text file, I’m sure you’ll get an answer that helps.

[Scott Sumner]

@Chuck-Ballinger

• Put your caret in the desired column (e.g. 10) on line #1.
• Press Shift+Alt+DownArrow until you get to the last line of your file (stay in same column).
• You should now have what appears to be a really tall and skinny caret (assuming your are in INS mode; check status bar for INS vs OVR).
• Type the “fixed value” character that you want to have in your desired column.
• If you wanted to replace the original column content with your fixed-value character (rather than insert it), press the Delete key once.

If your file has a large number of lines, there are alternative steps to the 2nd step…to make it less onerous…

[guy038]

Hello @chuck-ballinger,

An other possibility is to use regular expressions !

Let’s suppose that you want to insert a X character, in column n, on any line of your file :

• Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )

• OPTIONS Wrap around and Regular expression checked

• SEARCH (?-s)^.{n-1}\K\x20+(?=(X))|^.{0,n-1}\K ( Replace the expression n-1 with the appropriate number ! )

• REPLACE ?1:n spacesX

• ACTION click TWICE on the Replace All button

So, assuming the initial text, below, with a first blank line :

1
12
123
1234
12345
123456
1234567
12345678
123456789
1234567890
12345678901
123456789012
1234567890123
12345678901234
123456789012345

After two click on Replace All, we get the text :

         X
1        X
12       X
123      X
1234     X
12345    X
123456   X
1234567  X
12345678 X
123456789X
123456789X0
123456789X01
123456789X012
123456789X0123
123456789X01234
123456789X012345

---

If you like that solution, I’ll give you, next time, some details on that regex S/R !

Best Regards,

guy038