Cutting only the 1st column data

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1

Hi All,

I having a data file which consists of 20cr records in it. The 1st column is year field which consist of year in format 200809 and fields are seperated with ^.
How do i trim it to 2008 in file and save it in a quick time as there are many records so that i can use the file for loading into database.
Thanks

Sample File format:

"200809^1235566^^asghagsdg^212^N^"
2

Hello Abhi,

Could you please let me know the deired Output so that it will be easier for us to solve it.

R. Singh

3 
"2008^1235566^^asghagsdg^212^N^"

Only the 1st columns is changed from 200809 to 2008.
Thanks

4

try

 
awk -F"^" '{$1=2008;OFS="^";print $0}'  filename