I've read some other column posts and met my basic needs. But I'd like to know if I can do it faster.

I want to:
1. open a csv file
2. delete the first 3 columns
3. keep column 4
4. delete the columns after column 4

I've accomplished this by converting to fixed width columns, then doing two deletes. Do I have to convert to fixed width? Can't I delete variable length columns?

Thanks

The following Unix style regular expression does the job:

replace:
^.*\,.*\,.*\,(.*),.*$
with:
\1

or - even better - if you prefer the Perl-regexp-style:
replace:
^.*?\,.*?\,.*?\,(.*?),.*
with:
$1

^ means: Start of line (might be omitted here)
? means: non-greedy, just up to the NEXT Komma.
() means: my first variable = $1
.* means: all characters
rds Bego