Hi, I have file like this: ====================== 1232 asdasds: 121 wefefsedfsd asdsd !34234 sdfdf 43423 fdsfsd 423434 end =================== I would like to remove the first field which start with numbers, such as: 43423 fdsfsd after removal, it should look like this: without space in front +++++++++++++++++ asdasds: wefefsedfsd asdsd !34234 sdfdf fdsfsd end +++++++++++++++ I tried this way sed 's/^[0-9]*//g; s/^[ \t]*//' file1>file2 It works but Is there any better way to do this? like remove the the first filed start with number all the way upto first space? After above step, I also want to reformat the text like this ===================== # any line end with : add one space in front asdasds: wefefsedfsd #indented the contains asdsd !34234 sdfdf fdsfsd end # any line with onle word end add one space ====================== How can I do this? Any hint is much appreciated. Thanks in advance

Hi after I post the above message it seems not displayed properly: for the final text: # any line end with : add one space in front asdasds: #one space in front wefefsedfsd #indented the contains asdsd #indented the contains !34234 sdfdf #indented the contains fdsfsd #indented the contains end # any line with onle word end add one space Thanks

[code] awk '$1 ~ /[0-9]+/ { if ($NF ~ /:$/) { $1 = " " } else { $1="" } gsub("^ ","",$0) } {print $0} ' "file" [/code]

Thanks Ghostdog. I tried the script and got the following result: asdasds: wefefsedfsd asdsd sdfdf fdsfsd end What I need is remove first field START with number ( not contains number). so the script is missing this line: !34234 sdfdf Here is a new file to test 1232 asdasds: 121 wefefsedfsd asdsd !34234 sdfdf 43423 fdsfsd MAP1 TEST,S,4 MAP2 TEST2,4 MAP3 TEST3 S,1 423434 end After script run I want to get this result: asdasds: wefefsedfsd asdsd !34234 sdfdf fdsfsd MAP1 TEST,S,4 MAP2 TEST2,4 MAP3 TEST3 S,1 end Thanks very much for your help