Remove lines from a file
The task is to demonstrate how to remove a specific line or a number of lines from a file. This should be implemented as a routine that takes three parameters (filename, starting line, and the number of lines to be removed). For the purpose of this task, line numbers and the number of lines start at one, so to remove the first two lines from the file foobar.txt, the parameters should be: foobar.txt, 1, 2
Empty lines are considered and should still be counted, and if the specified line is empty, it should still be removed. An appropriate message should appear if an attempt is made to remove lines beyond the end of the file.
C++
<lang cpp>#include <fstream>
- include <iostream>
- include <string>
- include <cstdlib>
- include <list>
void deleteLines( const std::string & , int , int ) ;
int main( int argc, char * argv[ ] ) {
if ( argc != 4 ) { std::cerr << "Error! Invoke with <deletelines filename startline skipnumber>!\n" ; return 1 ; } std::string filename( argv[ 1 ] ) ; int startfrom = atoi( argv[ 2 ] ) ; int howmany = atoi( argv[ 3 ] ) ; deleteLines ( filename , startfrom , howmany ) ; return 0 ;
}
void deleteLines( const std::string & filename , int start , int skip ) {
std::ifstream infile( filename.c_str( ) , std::ios::in ) ; if ( infile.is_open( ) ) { std::string line ; std::list<std::string> filelines ; while ( infile ) {
getline( infile , line ) ; filelines.push_back( line ) ;
} infile.close( ) ; if ( start > filelines.size( ) ) {
std::cerr << "Error! Starting to delete lines past the end of the file!\n" ; return ;
} if ( ( start + skip ) > filelines.size( ) ) {
std::cerr << "Error! Trying to delete lines past the end of the file!\n" ; return ;
} std::list<std::string>::iterator deletebegin = filelines.begin( ) , deleteend ; for ( int i = 1 ; i < start ; i++ )
deletebegin++ ;
deleteend = deletebegin ; for( int i = 0 ; i < skip ; i++ )
deleteend++ ;
filelines.erase( deletebegin , deleteend ) ; std::ofstream outfile( filename.c_str( ) , std::ios::out | std::ios::trunc ) ; if ( outfile.is_open( ) ) {
for ( std::list<std::string>::const_iterator sli = filelines.begin( ) ; sli != filelines.end( ) ; sli++ ) outfile << *sli << "\n" ;
} outfile.close( ) ; } else { std::cerr << "Error! Could not find file " << filename << " !\n" ; return ; }
}</lang>
Icon and Unicon
<lang Icon>procedure main() # remove lines
removelines("foo.bar",3,2) | stop("Failed to remove lines.")
end
procedure removelines(fn,start,skip)
f := open(fn,"r") | fail # open to read every put(F := [],|read(f)) # file to list close(f)
if *F < start-1+skip then fail every F[start - 1 + (1 to skip)] := &null # mark delete f := open(fn,"w") | fail # open to rewrite every write(\!F) # write non-nulls close(f) return # done
end</lang>
J
<lang j>removeLines=:4 :0
'count start'=. x file=. boxxopen y lines=. <;.2]1!:1 file (;lines {~ <<< (start-1)+i.count) 1!:2 file
)</lang>
Thus: <lang bash>$ cal >cal.txt $ cat cal.txt
July 2011
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31</lang>
<lang j> 2 1 removeLines 'cal.txt'</lang>
<lang bash>$ cat cal.txt
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31</lang>
Note that this code assumes that the last character in the file is the line end character.
Liberty BASIC
It's always a bit dangerous to experiment with code that alters files. Un-rem the 'kill' to remove the temp file and the next line so the file is renamed to the original! <lang lb> call removeLines "foobar.txt", 1, 2 end
sub removeLines filename$, start, count
open filename$ for input as #in open filename$ + ".tmp" for output as #out lineCounter = 1 firstAfterIgnored = start + count while not(eof(#in)) line input #in, s$ if lineCounter < start or lineCounter >= firstAfterIgnored then print #out, s$ end if lineCounter = lineCounter + 1 wend close #in close #out 'kill filename$ 'name filename$ + ".tmp" as filename$
end sub </lang>
Lua
<lang lua>function remove( filename, starting_line, num_lines )
local fp = io.open( filename, "r" ) if fp == nil then return nil end
content = {} i = 1; for line in fp:lines() do if i < starting_line or i >= starting_line + num_lines then
content[#content+1] = line end i = i + 1
end
if i > starting_line and i < starting_line + num_lines then
print( "Warning: Tried to remove lines after EOF." )
end
fp:close() fp = io.open( filename, "w+" )
for i = 1, #content do
fp:write( string.format( "%s\n", content[i] ) )
end
fp:close()
end</lang>
OCaml
<lang ocaml>let input_line_opt ic =
try Some (input_line ic) with End_of_file -> None
let delete_lines filename start skip =
if start < 1 || skip < 1 then invalid_arg "delete_lines"; let tmp_file = filename ^ ".tmp" in let ic = open_in filename and oc = open_out tmp_file in let until = start + skip - 1 in let rec aux i = match input_line_opt ic with | Some line -> if i < start || i > until then (output_string oc line; output_char oc '\n'); aux (succ i) | None -> close_in ic; close_out oc; Sys.remove filename; Sys.rename tmp_file filename in aux 1
let usage () =
Printf.printf "Usage:\n%s <filename> <startline> <skipnumber>\n" Sys.argv.(0); exit 0
let () =
if Array.length Sys.argv < 4 then usage (); delete_lines Sys.argv.(1) (int_of_string Sys.argv.(2)) (int_of_string Sys.argv.(3))</lang>
$ cal > cal.txt $ cat cal.txt juillet 2011 lu ma me je ve sa di 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 $ ocaml deleteLines.ml cal.txt 5 2 $ cat cal.txt juillet 2011 lu ma me je ve sa di 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Perl
The value of deleting certain lines from a file notwithstanding, here's how you'd normally do it in Perl (call with perl rmlines -from=3 -to=10 filename
:<lang perl>#!/usr/bin/perl -n -s -i
print unless $. >= $from && $. <= $to;</lang>
If you want a backup file (maybe because deleting lines from a file in place is a pretty silly idea), change the -i
in the first line to -i.bak
, for example.
<lang Perl>#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict ;
use Tie::File ;
sub deletelines {
my $arguments = shift ; my( $file , $startfrom , $howmany ) = @{$arguments} ; tie my @lines , 'Tie::File' , $file or die "Can't find file $file!\n" ; my $nrecs = @lines ; if ( $startfrom > $nrecs ) { print "Error! Starting to delete lines past the end of the file!\n" ; return ; } if ( ( $startfrom + $howmany ) > $nrecs ) { print "Error! Trying to delete lines past the end of the file!\n" ; return ; } splice @lines , $startfrom - 1 , $howmany ; untie @lines ;
}
if ( @ARGV != 3 ) {
print "Error! Invoke with deletelines <filename> <start> <skiplines> !\n" ; exit( 1 ) ;
}
deletelines( \@ARGV ) ;</lang>
PicoLisp
<lang PicoLisp>(de deleteLines (File Start Cnt)
(let L (in File (make (until (eof) (link (line))))) (if (> (+ (dec 'Start) Cnt) (length L)) (quit "Not enough lines") (out File (mapc prinl (cut Start 'L)) (mapc prinl (nth L (inc Cnt))) ) ) ) )</lang>
PowerBASIC
<lang powerbasic>#DIM ALL
FUNCTION PBMAIN () AS LONG
DIM filespec AS STRING, linein AS STRING DIM linecount AS LONG, L0 AS LONG, ok AS LONG
filespec = DIR$(COMMAND$(1)) WHILE LEN(filespec) linecount = 0: ok = 0 OPEN filespec FOR INPUT AS 1 OPEN filespec & ".tmp" FOR OUTPUT AS 2 DO UNTIL EOF(1) LINE INPUT #1, linein INCR linecount IF VAL(COMMAND$(2)) <> linecount THEN PRINT #2, linein ELSE ok = -1 FOR L0 = 2 TO VAL(COMMAND$(3)) IF EOF(1) THEN ok = 1 PRINT "Tried to remove beyond the end of "; filespec EXIT DO END IF LINE INPUT #1, linein NEXT END IF LOOP IF 0 = ok THEN PRINT "Lines to remove are beyond the end of "; filespec ELSEIF -1 = ok THEN PRINT filespec; ": done" END IF CLOSE filespec = DIR$ WEND
END FUNCTION</lang>
Sample output:
E:\users\Erik\Desktop>rmvlns.exe ?.txt 500 100 Lines to remove are beyond the end of 0.txt Tried to remove beyond the end of 1.txt 2.txt: done 3.txt: done 4.txt: done
Seed7
<lang seed7>$ include "seed7_05.s7i";
include "osfiles.s7i";
const proc: removeLines (in string: fileName, in integer: start, in integer: count) is func
local var file: inFile is STD_NULL; var file: outFile is STD_NULL; var integer: lineNumber is 1; var string: line is ""; begin inFile := open(fileName, "r"); outFile := open(fileName & ".tmp", "w"); while hasNext(inFile) do line := getln(inFile); if lineNumber < start or lineNumber >= start + count then writeln(outFile, line); end if; incr(lineNumber); end while; close(inFile); close(outFile); removeFile(fileName); moveFile(fileName & ".tmp", fileName); end func;
const proc: main is func
begin if length(argv(PROGRAM)) = 3 then removeLines(argv(PROGRAM)[1], integer parse (argv(PROGRAM)[2]), integer parse (argv(PROGRAM)[3])); end if; end func;</lang>
Tcl
<lang tcl>proc removeLines {fileName startLine count} {
# Work out range to remove set from [expr {$startLine - 1}] set to [expr {$startLine + $count - 2}] # Read the lines set f [open $fileName] set lines [split [read $f] "\n"] close $f # Write the lines back out, without removed range set f [open $fileName w] puts -nonewline $f [join [lreplace $lines $from $to] "\n"] close $f
}</lang>