I've got an inventory database with eight columns with things like product name, manufacturer, UPC code, etc. on each line. Our PO (purchase order) number is in the first column. I can grep the date and get the full line of data but I would like to strip out everything but the PO number in the first column. What should I pipe the grep command to?

grep 061007 | ???

It sounds like cut would do the job for you, if it's not very nicely delimited, awk can sort you out..
If you get stuck on cut, post a line from your file and we'll find a commandline to get you moving again

PO Date Product Manufacturer UPC Dept Loc Comment

108224 061007 12mm bolt ABC Co. xxxxxxxx Eng Cebu Jason


I want to display just the PO in the first column when doing a query with grep on the date....if I grep 061007 | awk what should I put after awk to get only the PO number back?

Thanks for all your help.

I tried using cut but there are no line delimiters...I'm guessing awk is needed?

grep 061007 | awk '{ print $1 }'

No grep necessary: