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Need to get the first column of data

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# 1  
Old 08-04-2007
Need to get the first column of data
Hello,

if i have a file with this in it:

aaaa bbbb cccc dddd

how can i read that file and move the first column only into a variable?

i've been trying the cut command but can't seem to get it right, ie

HTML Code:
 wc                            all_flist_zp.out > wc.out
cut -b 1  wc.out > wc.out2
cat wc.out2
                                        passvar=`cat wc.out2`
                                        passvar=`echo $passvar | sed -e 's/^ *//' -e 's/ *$//'`
                                        echo "passvar:" $passvar
echo $passvar
Thanks very much for reviewing this!
BobK
# 2  
Old 08-04-2007
also, i'm seeing that the data in my post has shifted to the left but when you see "aaaa bbbb ccccc" it's really like " aaaaa bbbbb", where there are a varying number of spaces in between the fields, not just 1 blank space.

thanks
bk
# 3  
Old 08-04-2007
Code:
cut -c1 input_file | while read mFirst
do
  echo 'First character = '${mFirst}
done

or
Code:
#!/bin/ksh
typeset -L1 m1
while read m1 m2 m3 m4
do
  echo 'First character = '${m1}
done < input_file

# 4  
Old 08-04-2007
Thanks again Shell Life! you did it again! saved me several more hours of hit and miss!

Hope you're having a nice weekend!

BobK
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