Issue
How can I delete the first (!) line of a text file if it's empty, using e.g. sed or other standard UNIX tools. I tried this command:
sed '/^$/d' < somefile
But this will delete the first empty line, not the first line of the file, if it's empty. Can I give sed some condition, concerning the line number?
With Levon's answer I built this small script based on awk:
#!/bin/bash
for FILE in $(find some_directory -name "*.csv")
do
echo Processing ${FILE}
awk '{if (NR==1 && NF==0) next};1' < ${FILE} > ${FILE}.killfirstline
mv ${FILE}.killfirstline ${FILE}
done
Solution
The simplest thing in sed is:
sed '1{/^$/d}'
Note that this does not delete a line that contains all blanks, but only a line that contains nothing but a single newline. To get rid of blanks:
sed '1{/^ *$/d}'
and to eliminate all whitespace:
sed '1{/^[[:space:]]*$/d}'
Note that some versions of sed
require a terminator inside the block, so you might need to add a semi-colon. eg sed '1{/^$/d;}'
Answered By - William Pursell Answer Checked By - Gilberto Lyons (WPSolving Admin)