UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

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:

Code:

awk '/061007/ { print $1 }'