Hi, boss
i have a problem:
i want display one column from a file.
so i think i can used the awk -F"," '{print $number}' XXXX.
but the file contain lots of the column,,,so i can confirm the line number which i need .
so can some body help me to solve this issus.......

PS: how can i display the any row or any column by the UNIX command?

The row will work with the awk statement you posted.

for rows:

awk 'NR==number"  # where number is the row you want.

sed -n '2p'   # where 2 is 2nd row

I know that, but how to check the number of the column? due the table is very big, and do i need count that manually? or can i filter that column by key words?
like: name class .............. age
kevin 5 26
so i do not know the exactly column of the age, but i know there is a column include the "age" key words.
can i filter that column by keywords?
thanks very much!

how to display the 2nd coloumn from a file ........
for ex....

empno ename
1 scott
2 ford

need to display 2nd coloumn
how ? any help ?

i've moved this thread to "shell programming..."

@naughty21
please don't capture old threads for new questions. just start a new thread in the right forum...

for your question try this:

cat /your/file | cut -d " " -f2

to display second column

awk '{print $2}' file

awk '{print NF}' file