Delete \n characters from line range in text file - perl

Question

Let's say we have a text file with 1000 lines.
How can we delete new line characters from line 20 to 500 (replace them with space for example)?
My try:
sed '20,500p; N; s/\n/ /;' #better not to say anything
All other lines (1-19 && 501-1000) should be preserved as-is.
As I'm familiar with sed, awk or perl solutions are welcomed, but please give an explanation with them as I'm a perl and awk newbie.

Answer 1

You could use something like this (my example is on a slightly smaller scale :-)
$ cat file
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
$ awk '{printf "%s%s", $0, (2<=NR&&NR<=5?FS:RS)}' file
1
2 3 4 5 6
7
8
9
10
The second %s in the printf format specifier is replaced by either the Field Separator (a space by default) or the Record Separator (a newline) depending on whether the Record Number is within the range.
Alternatively:
$ awk '{ORS=(2<=NR&&NR<=5?FS:RS)}1' file
1
2 3 4 5 6
7
8
9
10
Change the Output Record Separator depending on the line number and print every line.
You can pass variables for the start and end if you want, using awk -v start=2 -v end=5 '...'

Answer 2

This might work for you (GNU sed):
sed -r '20,500{N;s/^(.*)(\n)/\2\1 /;D}' file
or perhaps more readably:
sed ':a;20,500{N;s/\n/ /;ta}' file

Answer 3

Using a perl one-liner to strip the newline:
perl -i -pe 'chomp if 20..500' file
Or to replace it with a space:
perl -i -pe 's/\R/ / if 20..500' file
Explanation:
Switches:
-i: Edit <> files in place (makes backup if extension supplied)
-p: Creates a while(<>){...; print} loop for each “line” in your input file.
-e: Tells perl to execute the code on command line.
Code:
chomp: Remove new line
20 .. 500: if Range operator .. is between line numbers 20 to 500

Answer 4

Here's a perl version:
my $min = 5; my $max = 10;
while (<DATA>) {
if ($. > $min && $. < $max) {
chomp;
$_ .= " ";
}
print;
}
__DATA__
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Output:
1
2
3
4
5
6 7 8 9 10
11
12
13
14
15
It reads in DATA (which you can set to being a filehandle or whatever your application requires), and checks the line number, $.. While the line number is between $min and $max, the line ending is chomped off and a space added to the end of the line; otherwise, the line is printed as-is.