how to replace content of specified column in a huge file using Unix Command

Question

I have a huge file around 10 GB. And I want to replace its 35th column (separated by ;). Since, its a huge file, opening file in an editor is not an option. I want to do replace in all the lines of file.

Somebody suggested me to use Sed but i am not comfortable with it yet. Could somebody suggest a unix command that can achieve the same.

Answer 1

the accepted solution didn't work for me. But helped me in finding this:

awk '{$35 = "replacement"; print $0}' < oldfile > newfile

for a tab separated file

Answer 2

This might work for you (GNU sed):

 sed -i 's/[^;]*/replacement/35' file

Answer 3

awk -F';' '{ $35 = "replacement" }' < oldfile > newfile