How to replace blank tab with zero in a file?

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

hi,

i need to replace a blank tab output in a file to zero.

input file:

2015/08/04 00:00:00                       171                       730579                         27088                 <blank>                             3823                          30273                  1621778             3284136                        284200                      1267655                418709                        1320811                         51865           <blank>                                                    198387                            518

output:

2015/08/04 00:00:00                       171                       730579                         27088                 0                             3823                          30273                  1621778             3284136                        284200                      1267655                418709                        1320811                         51865           0                                                    198387                            518
2

I guess you don't want sed 's/<blank>/0/g' file ; then you should supply more details, e.g. is that a <TAB> delimited file? Are all fields except the first one(or two?) numeric? Any spaces in there?

3

Yes all the fields are numeric except first one which is date.

the file is tab delimited and actually a output from sql query.

some of the rows are null so u see more space between column where it is null and i need to replace those blank null tab will zero.

4

Then try

awk -F"\t" '{for (i=2;i<=NF;i++) if (!$i) $i=0}1' OFS="\t" file
5

Sorry its not working.

awk -F"\t" '{for (i=2;i<=NF;i++) if (!$i) $i=0}1' OFS="\t" test

output

2015/08/04 00:00:00                       171                       730579                         27088                                              3823                          30273                  1621778             3284136                        284200                      1267655                418709                        1320811                         51865                                                                                198387                            518
6 
 awk -F"\t" '1; {for (i=2;i<=NF;i++) if (!$i) $i=0}1' OFS="\t" file
2015/08/04 00:00:00    171    730579    27088         3823    30273    1621778    3284136    284200    1267655    418709    1320811    51865         198387    518
2015/08/04 00:00:00    171    730579    27088    0    3823    30273    1621778    3284136    284200    1267655    418709    1320811    51865    0    198387    518

---------- Post updated at 19:44 ---------- Previous update was at 19:42 ----------

Is it possible that "\t" doesn't work for FS and OFS on your system? Try inserting it literally.

7

Are you in Solaris? If so use /usr/xpg4/bin/awk rather than awk.
Is you file in fact TAB delimited? The sample you posted is not.

--

Every awk should be able to understand "\t".

[..] if (!$i) [..]

Why not just

if($i=="")

than you can be sure Awk will treat it as an empty string.