Since you are using the Bash shell (see your tags), you can use Bash arrays to easily access the individual fields in your output strings. For example like so:
#!/bin/bash
# Your lines to gather the output:
# a=$(./algorithm < input.txt)
# b=$(./algorithm2 < input.txt)
# c=$(./algorithm3 < input.txt)
# Just to use your example output strings:
a="$(printf "12 13 315 \n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 2 8 9 1 0 0 2 3 4 5")"
b="$(printf "2 3 712 \n 1 23 15 12 31 23 3 2 5 6 6 1 2 3 5 51 2 3 21")"
# Put the output in arrays.
a_array=($a)
b_array=($b)
# You can access the array elements individually.
# The array index starts from 0.
# (The names a1 and b1 for the third elements were your choice.)
a1="${a_array[2]}"
b1="${b_array[2]}"
# Print output strings.
# (The newlines in $a and $b are gobbled by echo, since they are not quoted.)
echo "Output a:" $a
echo "Output b:" $b
# Print third elements.
echo "3rd from a: $a1"
echo "3rd from b: $b1"
This script outputs
Output a: 12 13 315 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 2 8 9 1 0 0 2 3 4 5
Output b: 2 3 712 1 23 15 12 31 23 3 2 5 6 6 1 2 3 5 51 2 3 21
3rd from a: 315
3rd from b: 712
Explanation:
The trick here is that array constants (literals) in Bash have the form
(<space_separated_list_of_elements>)
for example
(1 2 3 4 a b c nearly_any_string 99)
Any variable that gets such an array assigned, automatically becomes an array variable. In the script above, this is what happens in a_array=($a): Bash expands the $a to the <space_separated_list_of_elements> and reads the whole expression again interpreting it as an array constant.
Individual elements in such arrays can be referenced like variables by using expressions of the form
<array_name>[<idx>]
like a variable name. Therein, <array_name>is the name of the array and <idx> is an integer that references the individual element. For arrays that are represented by array constants, the index counts elements continuously starting from zero. Therefore, in the script, ${a_array[2]} expands to the third element in the array a_array. If the array would have less elements, a_array[2] would be considered unset.
You can output all elements in the array a_array, the corresponding index array, and the number of elements in the array respectively by
echo "${a_array[@]}"
echo "${!a_array[@]}"
echo "${#a_array[@]}"
These commands can be used to track down the fate of the newline: Given the script above, it is still in $a, as can be seen by (watch the quotes)
echo "$a"
which yields
12 13 315
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 2 8 9 1 0 0 2 3 4 5
But the newline did not make it into the array a_array. This is because Bash considers it as part of the whitespace that separates the third and the fourth element in the array assignment. The same applies if there are no extra spaces around the newline, like here:
12 13 315\n1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 2 8 9 1 0 0 2 3 4 5
I actually assume that the output of your C program comes in this form.
