delete line if contains pattern

[dbase77]

Hi,

How do I go about deleting any lines that contain pattern on the first 3 characters or maybe first 5 characters? Example file contains:

.
.
How much does it cost?
Where are you now, How?
Is this correct?
How old are you?
How are you?
.
.

I want to remove "How" lines and "Is" line for example. I be able to use sed or awk but they both search the whole line. I just want to search for the first 3 chars on each line.

Thanks.

 

[Annihilannic]

You can just tie your regexp to the beginning of the line using ^, e.g. /^(How|Is)/ should work in awk.

Annihilannic.

 

[dbase77]

Yes, that what I forgot. The "^" sign.



Thank you.