Question

Remove blank lines in tab delimited file

Asked by: AddOnsInc

I have a text file that is tab delimited and has a CrLf at the end of each record.   Each record will always have the tab delimiter for each field regardless if there is data present or not.  I would like to remove all records that do not contain any data in the fields (but realize the tab delimiter and CrLf will be present in each record).

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Asked On
2009-10-01 at 05:29:20ID24776690
Tags

PERL

Topic

Perl Programming Language

Participating Experts
3
Points
125
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: ozoPosted on 2009-10-01 at 05:36:38ID: 25467971

perl -i.bak -ne "print if /\S/" file

 

by: teraplanePosted on 2009-10-01 at 05:39:35ID: 25468003

Just loop over the file looking for a line with only whitespace

open(IN_FH,"<input.txt");
open(OUT_FH,"<output.txt");
while (<IN_FH>)
{
    if ( $_ =~ /^\s+$/)
    {
        next; # line only has white space, such as tabs
    }
    else
    {
        print(OUT_FH $_);
    }
}
close(IN_FH);
close(OUT_FH);

 

by: AddOnsIncPosted on 2009-10-01 at 05:45:13ID: 25468039

ozo...your command works except it is also removing the last valid record in the file.  Can you explain why and help resolve.  I like the simplicity of the single line command as a solution

 

by: Adam314Posted on 2009-10-01 at 06:59:15ID: 25468664

Does your last line have a CrLf on it?

 

by: AddOnsIncPosted on 2009-11-04 at 15:28:51ID: 31635831

worked well except no response on last line issue

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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