Is there a text editor for very big files?

Question

I have a very big text file (10 GB). Both Notepad and Notepad++ tell me that the file is too big for them to open. What editor can handle such a large file? It's a log file.

Answer 1

If you only need to read the file, I can suggest Large Text File Viewer.

Answer 2

Stack Overflow ref Text editor to open big (giant, huge, large) text files.

Vim is a personal favorite.

• However, if you are working with timestamped entries in log file, it's easier to filter for a date range and look at smaller files.
• With other kinds of larger files, you could cut out specific line-number ranges (tools like sed and grep) to smaller files and analyze individually
• If it's some specific translation or searching to do, again sed, grep, etc. are good tools.

Answer 3

UltraEdit is your best bet - I've opened files that were a few gigabytes in size with it. They also have some tips on opening large files.

It's not free, however.

Otherwise, you can use the Unix split utility from the command line - should be included in Cygwin or the Linux command line tools for Windows. You'll have much better luck dealing with the files if you've split them up into smaller chunks.

Answer 4

I've had luck with TextPad on files 2 GB in size with less ram than that, it takes a while to load up, but it works.

Answer 5

EmEditor is a very nice editor all around, but also build with opening very large files in mind.

From their site, and I quote: " EmEditor Text Editor is a lightweight, yet extendable, easy-to-use text editor for Windows. EmEditor is very customizable, and it supports Unicode and powerful macros. EmEditor now supports very large files - up to 248 GB or 2.1 billion lines! EmEditor is certified for Windows Vista! The x64 Edition is also available! The portable version is also available for USB drive setup! "

Answer 6

Total Commander's lister can open very large files for reading. For editing you might also use some kind of Hex editor (like the free HxD), they can usually open and edit large files.

Answer 7

The best one I tried was V - The File Viewer, when I needed to analyse a text file of more than 1 TB. It was by far the fastest. It's not free, though ($20).

Answer 8

I would recommend VEDIT. It is about the only editor that is fast enough to realistically edit huge files. Its engine has been written in highly optimized assembly language.

No matter how big the file, VEDIT loads it in a fraction of a second (typically about 0.1 second). Most editors load the whole file in memory, which limits the file size and slows down opening the file. VEDIT only loads a part of the file at a time, and does not create a huge temporary file when opening the file (temporary files are created only when needed and as big as needed). In addition, VEDIT uses very little of computer memory. When I had a 300 MB file open, Task Manager reported 4.5 MB memory usage for VEDIT.

If you are just viewing the file and not editing, opening the file in read-only mode (with Fast Browse Mode enabled) makes VEDIT even faster. For example, you can scroll to any location in the file instantly, without any delay.

The standard (32-bit) version of VEDIT can handle files up to 2 GB. VEDIT Pro64 can handle files of any size.

To edit files larger than 2 GB on a 32-bit editor, you can split the file into smaller parts. You could use a separate tool for that, but VEDIT has built-in function to split and combine such files. For huge log files, splitting might be good idea anyway. You can then open all the parts for editing simultaneously and you can perform global searches among all of them, etc.

Answer 9

The Unix sed (stream editor) command can handle files of an arbitrary large (even infinite) file size, because it applies a script of editing commands to the stream of lines that pass through it. You can easily get it for Windows through the Cygwin distribution.

For instance, if you want to delete all files containing the string foo you write in the command prompt:

sed /foo/d <inputfile >outputfile

To substitute foo with bar write:

sed s/foo/bar/ <inputfile >outputfile

More complicated constructions are possible. Someone has even written a script to have sed solve the Towers of Hanoi puzzle.

Answer 10

You can also try Bare Tail

http://www.baremetalsoft.com/baretail

Answer 11

For looking through large files (but only for read-only purposes), I use a Windows port of the UNIX less utility. It generally loads up any large file very quickly, and is pretty quick at searching for text patterns (once you get past its learning curve).

(Oh, and the other catch is that you have to run it within a command prompt window. It might not work if you were looking for something a bit more visually friendly.)

I don't recall where I found my current copy of it, but a quick web search shows a few possible places to download one, e.g.:

• http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/download.html
• http://www.steve.org.uk/Software/less/

Answer 12

I edited a file of 7 GB with PilotEdit. But it may take you an hour to open/save a 10 GB file. After you open the file, you can edit it quickly.

Answer 13

Under Windows, I use EditPad Pro from Just Great Software (there is a lite version too).

EditPad is the best editor I found. TextPad is also very good. Both now support UTF-8 file encoding.

Answer 14

I have developed a Unicode editor called GigaEdit specifically to solve this issue of opening unlimited size files instantly by blocks of 1 MB with scrollbar to navigate effortlessly between blocks and a multithreaded search feature that displays a result as they become available and allows you to go to matches instantly F3 / Shift+F3 even across blocks transparently.

WARNING: There is no UNDO after saving so make sure you know what you are doing.

Download: http://www.heliwave.com/GigaEdit.html

Answer 15

I'll suggest gVim which can open such a huge file.

Answer 16

I used to like pepper for this purpose. It's a little hard to find the abandoned windows port, and harder still to get it registered, though I managed about 2 years ago to contact Hekkelman about it. One of the features is that it does not load the whole file into memory.

Answer 17

EmEditor is basically built for huge files. It's never balked at anything I'm thrown at it!

Answer 18

If you only want to view a section of a file, then you can use the following command in a DOS window.

type reallylargefile.txt | more

This will display file at a screen full at a time.

Answer 19

I had trouble loading a 5.5 GB binary file in a whole range of editors. Two I found that worked, and opened the file instantly:

• Altap Salamander
• HxD

HxD is my preferred one, since it is free, supports viewing and editing and is a stand alone. My large files are generally binary, so a hex editor is fine. But for viewing large text files, Altap Salamander has a better viewer.

Answer 20

Use FileSplitter to break the file into smaller files, and then use your favorite text editor!

Answer 21

Assuming you only need to read the file, Microsoft's Windows 2003 resource kit includes list.exe.

Answer 22

Try TextPad. It's the best.