Help! Null Characters to spaces

FoxyNewbie · 05-27-2004, 10:44 AM

Im a newbie and need some help in understanding how to accomplish this task.

I have a file that contains this:
This is ly a TesT

In Hex this is what it looks like:
54 68 69 73 20 69 73 20 00 0E etc

I need to convert ALL 00 in a file to spaces.
I've been researching around and found that only certain SED's can do the job. Is there an AWK that can perform this functionality?

Thank in advance for your help.

FoxyNewbie

Hko · 05-27-2004, 11:11 AM

Quote:

I've been researching around and found that only certain SED's can do the job. Is there an AWK that can perform this functionality?

Sorry, I know too little about AWK.
But what's wrong with sed?

Code:

sed 's/\x00/ /g' file-with-zeroes >new-file-without-zeroes.txt

Works with GNU sed only I think, but probably that's most probably the sed that comes with your Linux distribution.

FoxyNewbie · 05-27-2004, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Hko
Sorry, I know too little about AWK.
But what's wrong with sed?

Code:

sed 's/\x00/ /g' file-with-zeroes >new-file-without-zeroes.txt

Works with GNU sed only I think, but probably that's most probably the sed that comes with your Linux distribution.

Some versions of sed works but others does not.

When I pass through that specific code it still generates this in hex

Code:

sed 's/\x00/ /g' file-with-zeroes >new-file-without-zeroes.txt

00000000h: 54 68 69 73 20 69 73 20 00 6E 6C 79 20 61 20 74 ; This is .nly a t
00000010h: 65 73 74 ; est

Hko · 05-27-2004, 11:31 AM

Hmm, sorry about that.

Hko · 05-27-2004, 11:36 AM

Would the "strings" program help you out?
Try:

strings file-with-zeroes >new-file-without-zeroes

Hko · 05-27-2004, 11:38 AM

If nothing comes up, I would happily write you a program in C that does it.
Just tell me.

aluser · 05-27-2004, 11:50 AM

can you depend on perl? perl -pe 'tr/\000/ /' should do it

FoxyNewbie · 05-27-2004, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by aluser
can you depend on perl? perl -pe 'tr/\000/ /' should do it

That code did it.

Thanks to everyone for your prompt reply.. this forum is the BEST!