How to delete columns in vi file?

Question

I have a vi file containing hundreds of lines with the following format

029.inp.log:  SCF  Done:   E(RHF)  =   -844.790844670      A.U.  after    26 cycles 

I want to delete all of the columns (separated by spaces/tabs. got messed up when I pasted it here) other than the first (029.inp.log:) and the fifth (-844.790844670). Can anyone help me?

Solution 1

Press ctrl+v for block selection. use h, j, k, l keys to navigate and press key d to delete the selected block. The graphical editor like kate also having capability of the block selection.

Solution 2

If you are not confined to vi, shell command is a good choice for this task.

cat your_filename | cut -f 1,5 > result_filename

About rectangle selection in vim, you must guarantee that the field in all lines with the same width.

Perhaps vim command :%!cut -f1,5 is OK too, but I can not give it a try now.