12
2
I have a huge text file containing this string/character <200b> that I want to delete. I tried with sed but it didn't work.
sed 's/<200b>//g' file
The character never shows when I open the file with a graphic text editor like gedit, I see it with vim.
user2598997
Posted 2015-03-08T23:33:20.037
Reputation: 121
14
<200b> is a Unicode for "Zero Width Space". You won't find it as a string. You can pipe the character into sed like this for removal:
sed -i "s/$(echo -ne '\u200b')//g" file
sed -i will modify the file in-place.$(...) is a Bash command substitution.echo manual page:
-n do not output the trailing newline-e enable interpretation of backslash escapes
sirEgghead
Posted 2015-03-08T23:33:20.037
Reputation: 141
1Welcome to superuser: The answer maybe correct but would be better if it was surrounded with some detail on what you have done, how to use, etc. for people that may not understand and search answers in days or years to come. – mic84 – 2018-05-10T04:52:57.097
there was no down vote from me – mic84 – 2018-05-10T05:06:11.213
Combining sed and echo -ne is even more elegant than all this answers
6
You can also get rid of this in VIM.
%s/\%u200b// - entire file
%s/\%u200b//g - entire file, more than one occurrence on a line
mmrtnt
Posted 2015-03-08T23:33:20.037
Reputation: 61
1
I would recommend open this file in any Text editor and do a Find and Replace.
Find: Hold Alt and press 0 1 2 9 (this will input a zero-width character).
Replace: Leave empty.
Choose "Replace all".
Mike
Posted 2015-03-08T23:33:20.037
Reputation: 517
Depending on how "huge" the text file is, some text editors won't work on it. – mpez0 – 2015-03-08T23:56:58.030
Hi. I already tried this but it tells me that the string is not found. The file has 5 million lines. – user2598997 – 2015-03-09T00:01:39.550
You have to detect how to input the same symbol as used in this file. And then use FART or Ser tool (as your file is really huge) to find and replace. I see no other option, but it doesn't mean it's not exist. Let's see if someone will post anything more effective. – Mike – 2015-03-09T00:06:01.250
I need to add an info. the character never shows when i open the file with a graphic text editor, i see it with vim. – user2598997 – 2015-03-09T00:13:14.113
Please see this link, it helped me find <200b> in my text file: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/59447/replace-unicode-chars-in-vim
– Nanda – 2017-08-25T00:08:54.617