Perl Write to Specific line in a file

To read from oldfile and write to newfile:
    perl -pe 's/^C3,.*,.*,\K0,/1,/' oldfile >newfile
or to update oldfile itself:
    perl -i -pe 's/^C3,.*,.*,\K0,/1,/' oldfile
or to backup the original file to oldfile.bak and then update oldfile:
    perl -i.bak -pe 's/^C3,.*,.*,\K0,/1,/' oldfile

Too lengthy?

Hi Tel2 - in the below line if i want to update fourth field value from 0 to 1 the above code works but what if i want to change 6th field value from 0 to 1 or let us say 8th field value from 0 to 1.
How do you modify such things, i expected in the form of field number but the regular expression you gave me i did not understand how it works.

C3, 2,2,0,9292016_101425, 0, 9292016_101428, 0, 9292016_101428

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the field position 4th or 6th or 8th are not fixed all the time
my other code determine which value should be updated on the line, so was looking for something in terms of field number.

Hi shrangi,

It could save a lot of time if you make such expectations of flexibility clear in your original post, in future.

Are you wanting to replace the Nth field in the 'C3' line with '1' ONLY if it is '0'?  Or can all such values be changed to '1'?

This is how I'd do it...

use strict;
use warnings;
use Tie::File;
tie my @lines, 'Tie::File', filename or die "could not tie file: $!";
my @parts = split m{,}, $lines[2];
$parts[3] = 1 if ($parts[3] == 0);
$lines[2] = join ',', @parts;

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Is this what you're after, shrangi?
    perl -F, -ane '$F[3]="1" if /^C3,/ && $F[3] eq "0";print join(",",@F)' oldfile >newfile
or, if you also want to refer to the 1st field by index:
    perl -F, -ane '$F[3]="1" if $F[0] eq "C3" && $F[3] eq "0";print join(",",@F)' oldfile >newfile

The 2 instances of "$F[3]" refer to the 4th field, because $F[0] is the 1st field.
So, change that to whatever field is required.

But please answer the question in my previous post, because I may be able to simplify this code a bit (or even a byte) more.

Hi Tel2 - yes i want to replace the Nth field in the 'C3' line with '1' ONLY if it is '0' - not all
Hi wilcoxon - in your code how do you determine the line starts with C3.

Hi Tel2- your code starts with "perl -F" is it command line code or can i use it in the middle of other script.

> "Hi Tel2- your code starts with "perl -F" is it command line code or can i use it in the middle of other script."

Thank you again for saving this information until this late stage.  You could have explained that requirement in your previous post, or even your original post.

What kind of "other script" are you going to put this in?  Perl?  Shell?  Python?  You posted this question in all those topic areas, so I can't tell what you want.
If the "other script" is a shell script, you can use my one-liner as is.
If the "other script" is a Perl script, maybe you should use wilcoxon's solution, which looks pretty concise for a non-one-liner.

Sorry tel2 I was stupid not to be clear.
Wincoxon solution is good except that i am not sure how does he find the line start with C3.

Again...
What kind of "other script" are you going to put this in?  Perl?  Shell?  Python?  You posted this question in all those topic areas, so I can't tell what you want.

perl

So why did you include the Shell Scripting and Python topic areas, shragi?  Doing so could result in experts wasting time providing solutions in the wrong language.

In general, if you want some programming done, I suggest you specify:
- Language
- Whether you want it embedded in your script, or a one-liner, or either is OK.
- Operating system.
The 1st and 3rd of these can often be obvious because of the topic areas you have chosen, but it's better to say it plainly.

But I accept your above apology, and maybe I should have asked more questions before wasting time on this.

Hi wilcoxon,

Your code seems to work for test data supplied, but...

1. It crashes if the 4th field is not a number (e.g. absent or has a leading space), like these:
C3, 2,2,,9292016_101425, 0, 9292016_101428, 0, 9292016_101428
C3, 2,2, 0,9292016_101425, 0, 9292016_101428, 0, 9292016_101428

2. If a line starts with C3 but doesn't have a 0 in the 4th field, then no futher attempt is made to find a line which starts with C3 and has a 0.

shragi, are either of the above input data scenarios possibly going to occur?