Well you are learning, awk splits line into field if you just specify FS Field separator, default FS is space.

$0 --> line
$1 --> first field/column
$2 --> second field/column
$NF --> last field/column in a line

Code:

$ echo "1 2 3 4 5" | awk '{print "First Field "$1; print "Last Field "$NF}'
First Field 1
Last Field 5

if you are using other than space, you have to use FS

Code:

$ echo "1,2,3,4,5" | awk -F, '{print "First Field "$1; print "Last Field "$NF}'
First Field 1
Last Field 5

Here you don't have to split each line into field as in python for example, awk does

Code:

for line in open("file"):
columns = line.split("\t")
print columns[1]