file.txt 23-Dec-07 12:34 A B C D E F G 23-Dec-07 12:35 A B C D E F GG HH CODE: awk -F\| '{ if ($1 ~ /[0-9][0-9]-[A-Z][A-Z][A-Z]-[0-9][0-9]/) { printf("\n") } printf("%s", $1); }' file.txt output: 23-Dec-07 12:34 A B C D E F G 23-Dec-07 12:35 A B C D E F GG HH