How can I replace every 5th comma in some input with a newline? For

Question

Editorial Team

Asked: June 1, 20262026-06-01T09:37:35+00:00 2026-06-01T09:37:35+00:00

How can I replace every 5th comma in some input with a newline?

For example:

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15

becomes

1,2,3,4,5
6,7,8,9,10
11,12,13,14,15

Looking for a one-liner using something like sed…

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

Editorial Team · Answer 1 · 2026-06-01T09:37:36+00:00

Editorial Team

This should work:

sed 's/\(\([^,]*,\)\{4\}[^,]*\),/\1\n/g'

Example:

$ echo "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15" |
> sed 's/\(\([^,]*,\)\{4\}[^,]*\),/\1\n/g'
1,2,3,4,5
6,7,8,9,10
11,12,13,14,15

The Archive Base Latest Questions