Huge File Editing with VEDIT
"I just received my copy of VEDIT and am very happy with it. I have occasion to edit files up to 40 megabytes, and haven't had a proper editor for it up until now. VEDIT's speed is incredible. VEDIT has quadrupled my production rate for this sort of thing already. Well done to the programmers!"
Bruce Nunn, Los Angeles, CA
Overview of editing huge files in VEDIT
VEDIT quickly edits any file up to 2 Gigabytes (2000 megabytes) in size. See the FAQ page for the steps to split, edit and merge files larger than 2 Gigs.
VEDIT Pro64 can edit files over 100 Gigabytes. A recent newsletter describes it in detail.
>>> Notes and suggestions for editing huge (20+ Meg) files:
- The amount of time it takes VEDIT to go to the end of the file with <Ctrl-End> is about the same as just copying the file (e.g. with Explorer or the "COPY" command).
- Since it may take a minute to copy a 100 Megabyte file, you will see the same delay within VEDIT.
- When you are at/near the end of the file, it takes about twice as long (as copying) to go back to the beginning of the file <Ctrl-Home>.
With huge 100+ megabytes files, it is therefore often faster to close the file (which is instantaneous when you are already at the end of the file) and reopen it, which is also instantaneous. This is especially true if the file is on a network. A trivial keystroke macro can do this with a "hot-key". (The keystroke macro is listed below.)
- The amount of time it takes VEDIT to search/replace to the end of the file is only about twice as long as just copying the file.
- Use "Pattern matching" whenever possible. "Regular expression" searching is much slower.
- By default, VEDIT returns to the original cursor position if the search fails. Since the return is time consuming, we suggest setting {CONFIG, Search options, Restore edit position on error} to "2". The cursor is then left at the end of the file on an unsuccessful search.
- Use the menu function {BLOCK, Copy/move to cursor} to copy huge blocks between files. The Windows clipboard is very sluggish if you attempt to use it with huge (20+ meg) blocks of text.
- VEDIT can perform multiple search/replace operations with just one pass through the file with the {MISC, Wildfile wizard} or {MISC, More macros, Wildfile} functions.
If you only need to view and search the file, you should open the file in "Read-only" mode. All navigation within the file is then instantaneous, e.g. you can instantly go the the beginning or the end. Note that in read-only mode, VEDIT will not always know what line number you are on since it has not had the chance to read and scan the entire file.
VEDIT can edit text files with lines of practically any length. Even lines with 100,000+ columns can be edited. Since it is tedious to horizontally scroll very long text lines, you can optionally wrap long lines on the screen by selecting {VIEW, Word wrap (display)} or by setting {CONFIG, Display options, Horizontal scroll margin}.
Many huge files are database files with fixed length records. You can more easily view and edit them by setting VEDIT to the correct record length with {CONFIG, File handling, File type} or by setting the record length at the bottom of the file-open dialog box.
As mentioned above, it is faster to go from the end of a huge file to the beginning by closing the file and reopening it. The following "hot-key" (keystroke macro) assigned to <Shift-F12> can do this for you. Select the menu item {CONFIG, Keyboard layout, Edit/view layout} and add the following line: (Be sure to press <Enter> at the end of the line.)
Shft-F12 [VISUAL EXIT] File_Save(BEGIN+NOMSG)
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