title: Deleting few selected characters from a file in vi/vim editor
body: <p>Below is the command to delete first <code>N</code> characters in vi:</p>
  
  <pre><code>:%s/^.\{N}//g
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, I don't understand the meaning of <code>^.\{N}</code>; can anyone explain the meaning of <em>each character by character</em>?<br>
  How to extend this command to delete in-between characters from lines ?</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p><strong>e.g.</strong> deleting 4th to 50th characters from given range of lines</p>
  </blockquote>