How to delete columns in vi file?

Question

I have a vi file containing hundreds of lines with the following format

029.inp.log:  SCF  Done:   E(RHF)  =   -844.790844670      A.U.  after    26 cycles

I want to delete all of the columns (separated by spaces/tabs. got messed up when I pasted it here) other than the first (029.inp.log:) and the fifth (-844.790844670). Can anyone help me?

Use `CTRL-v` and motion commands `h,j,k,l` to select columns and the delete them with `d` — Amit, Apr 27 '16 at 02:37
Wrong site, not a programming question. Try http://superuser.com ? — tink, Apr 27 '16 at 02:43
or even more `vi` centric ... http://vi.stackexchange.com . Good luck. — shellter, Apr 27 '16 at 03:56

score 17 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 27 '16 at 05:04

17

Press ctrl+v for block selection. use h, j, k, l keys to navigate and press key d to delete the selected block. The graphical editor like kate also having capability of the block selection.

answered Apr 27 '16 at 05:04

shafeeq

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gzh · Answer 2 · 2016-04-27T14:11:25.557

7

If you are not confined to vi, shell command is a good choice for this task.

cat your_filename | cut -f 1,5 > result_filename

About rectangle selection in vim, you must guarantee that the field in all lines with the same width.

Perhaps vim command :%!cut -f1,5 is OK too, but I can not give it a try now.

edited Apr 27 '16 at 14:11

answered Apr 27 '16 at 02:44

gzh

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How to delete columns in vi file?

2 Answers2