Deleting spaces from last character to end of line 1

[johngiggs]

Using sed, how would I go about deleting the spaces after the last letter or number in a line? I.E.

Sample Line spspspspspspsp

Where sp is a space on the line and should be replaced with:

Sample Line

I tried using:

sed -e 's/[a-z] *$//g;s/[0-9] *$//g' file

however it cuts off the last letter/number on the line.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

John

 

[PHV]

sed -e 's! *$!!' file >file.new && mv file.new file
or
echo '1,$s! *$!!\nwq' | ex -s file


Hope This Help
PH.

 

[johngiggs]

Thanks, PHV!! That sed command works great!! Can you please explain the syntax of that command. I'm not sure why you used the !.

Thanks,

John

 

[PHV]

's! *$!!'
 ^^-^- ^
 || |  +- Replace by nothing, ie delete
 || +- Any number of space 'til end of line
 |+- Pattern delimiter, any char, not necessarly / 
 +- Substitute command

I don't use the / char as pattern delimiter coz I often use sed to modify pathname.