i'm trying write bash script used awk particular field.
example:
# cat test.txt user name location frank china martin indonesia tom hanks united states ron howard germany when tried take first field using awk:
# cat test.txt | awk '{print $1}' user frank martin tom ron but want output as
expected output
#cat test.txt user name frank martin tom hanks ron howard i have tried awk -f"\t" '{print $1 (or) $2}', got blank output. i'm using file in while loop.
#cat test.txt | awk -f"\t" '{print $2}' any hint helpful.
you can use delimiter 2 or more spaces:
awk -f ' {2,}' '{print $1}' file user name frank martin tom hanks ron howard 