cut would be my first choice too. cut -c1-40 {fname} > {newfnam} will cut the first 40 columns of all lines of fname and drop the result in newfname (omit the {}). -- Cheers Nuno Souto dbvision@xxxxxxxxxxxx On 17/03/2013 12:51 PM, Mark W. Farnham wrote: > I think you mean from a character position to the end of the line for all > lines? > > I'd probably use sed or awk, whichever you know better, or cut, I suppose, > but I use cut so rarely I have to look up the syntax. > > -----Original Message----- > From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] > On Behalf Of Yong Huang > Sent: Saturday, March 16, 2013 12:15 PM > To: Christopher.Taylor2@xxxxxxxxxxxx > Cc: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: Re: Semi-OT: Vi Question/Need > >> What is the simplest way to delete from a line POSITION to end of line >> through the whole file? > Others have made good suggestions. If I need to make such vertical-editing, > I would display the text in Windows console with a wide window size (I > actually use the console version of sqlplus so in this case, it's already in > the console). Then I vertically select the text I need. > > Some editors support vertical editing, MS Word, UltraEdit, gVim, even MS > Outlook. In these editors, you can select and delete the part you don't > need. > > But for a very big file, using some command is preferred. > > -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l