Unix script to remove the first line of a CSV file Unix script to remove the first line of a CSV file unix unix

Unix script to remove the first line of a CSV file


You can delete the first line of a file using sed:

sed -i '' 1d file.csv

If you just want to get the contents of the file without the first line, and without modifying the file, remove the -i '' flag:

sed 1d file.csv

Here 1d is the command to execute:

  • 1 => line where to act
  • d => delete

So 1d means 'delete line 1'

If you want to get the first line, you can use sed too:

sed -n 1p file.csv

Here p stands for 'print' or

sed 1q file.csv

(see William Pursell's comment)


I tried to delete the first row from a CSV, cd into the location and then the answer to the question didn't work for me, was getting

sed: can't read 1d: No such file or directory

So, I've used the following stated here by @amit

sed -i '1d' filename.csv


To create a new CSV file without the header, you can do the following:

sed 1d file_with_header.csv > file_without_header.csv