Using Cut inside a script to cut a column from a specific String

Question

I have this file called viagens.txt:

2018-10-01:88020:88013:6:4.2
2018-10-01:88020:88014:8:3.8

I want to create a script that, in each line, checks the second column (in this case, in both cases it would return "88020").

However, right now, I can't filter it to get that number on the 2nd column. I have this code:

#!/bin/bash
fich=viagens.txt
condutores=condutores.txt
if [ -f $fich ];then
    for f in $(cat $fich); do
        condutor=$(cut -f2 $f)
        echo $condutor
    done
else
    echo "Ficheiro nao existe"
fi

I also tried

#!/bin/bash
fich=viagens.txt
condutores=condutores.txt
if [ -f $fich ];then
    for f in $(cat $fich); do
        condutor=$(cat $f | cut -d' ' -f2)
        echo $condutor
    done
else
    echo "Ficheiro nao existe"
fi

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance.

Kusalananda · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-05 22:30:09Z

In both of your scripts, you use cut on a file whose name is read from the viagens.txt file. You ought to get a No such file or directory error from both scripts (remember to always include any errors in the question).

Instead:

#!/bin/bash

fich=viagens.txt

if [ ! -f "$fich" ]; then
    echo "Ficheiro nao existe" >&2
    exit 1
fi

cut -d : -f 2 <"$fich" |
while read data; do
    printf 'Data read: %s\n' "$data"
done

The cut -d : -f 2 will return the second :-delimited field from the input to cut.

Or, if you just want to output the column:

#!/bin/bash

fich=viagens.txt

if [ ! -f "$fich" ]; then
    echo "Ficheiro nao existe" >&2
    exit 1
fi

cut -d : -f 2 <"$fich"

RudiC · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-06 10:45:48Z

0

How about - not withstanding a prior check for file's existence - reading the file's lines into an array, with IFS set to :, and print the second element?

IFS=:
while read -a TARR; do echo ${TARR[1]}; done < viagens.txt
88020
88020

Don't forget to set IFS back to its original value.

answered Oct 6, 2018 at 10:45

RudiC

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