Remove long lines from text file (Notepad++/EditPlus)

Question

I have a very big text file. Every line in this textfile has a complete sentence in it. Now I have to remove every line/sentence with more than x characters in it and just keep the lines with <=x characters.

Is this even possible? Can i do this with Notepad++/EditPlus or Regular Expressions?

Thank you for your help!

Currently in Windows, but I can switch to Linux, if I have to — eliah winkler, Jan 30 '13 at 22:05

nhahtdh · Answer 1 · 2013-01-30T22:07:38.157

8

This is solution for Notepad++

Choose "Regular expression" in Search Mode. Make sure ". matches newline" checkbox is unchecked.

Find what: .{x}.+

Replace with: (empty)

If you don't want to leave an empty line after replacement:

Find what: .{x}.+(\r?\n|\n|$)

Replace x with number of your choice.

edited Jan 30 '13 at 22:07

answered Jan 30 '13 at 22:00

nhahtdh

55,989
15
126
162

@eliahwinkler: You need to check the regular expression option. – nhahtdh Jan 30 '13 at 22:07
I did. EditPlus doesn't find anything with your string – eliah winkler Jan 30 '13 at 22:11
1

@eliahwinkler: It is for Notepad++ – nhahtdh Jan 30 '13 at 22:11
Can't find the text: ".{200}.+(\r?\n|\n|$)" Same for Notepad++ and EditPlus – eliah winkler Jan 30 '13 at 22:16
@eliahwinkler: It works fine for me. You need the regular expression mode. And try to upgrade to the latest version. – nhahtdh Jan 30 '13 at 22:19

Tristian · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-30T22:21:38.293

6

Using bash:

$ awk '{if (length($0) <= x) print $0; }'  myfyle.txt

Where x is the length. It will print the lines smaller than x.

See Awk Tutorial and Introduction for more awk goodies.

edited Jan 30 '13 at 22:21

answered Jan 30 '13 at 22:02

Tristian

3,406
6
29
47

This does not seem to work, yet the up-votes suggest that it should. I created a file with a very large line. However, no matter what the value of x that I put the file will not change. Is there something missing? – Kvothe May 31 '21 at 17:43

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 09 '14 at 09:41

This is the solution for Editplus version 3.70.

The following will delete any line that is 201 characters or more if you want to keep lines that are <= 200.

Find what: ^.{201,}.*\n
Leave replace with blank
Check regular expression

Note the comma after the 201.

Remove long lines from text file (Notepad++/EditPlus)

3 Answers3