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how can i express special character in some command?

Hi guys,
I have a lot of text file need to be formatted so i am getting my hand dirty with the shell for a week. Right now i have a problem with the delimiter in some command like cut. I want to set the delimiter to a tab but i dont know how to express a tab in a linux command. i havw tried /t, Ctl-v tab
for example:

Code:

cut -d/t -f1 myfile

cut -d(i typed ctrl-v tab here) -f1 myfile

but none of them seem to work
Can anyone tell me how to express tab and space in the shell command?
Thanks in advance

Hi,

Put it between double quotes:

cut -d"ctrl-v tab" -f1 file

Hope this helps.

Er, the default delimiter is a tab anyway...

man page:

Code:

      -d, --delimiter=DELIM

              use DELIM instead of TAB for field delimiter

Hi,

LOL

Of course it is! Why did I think it was a space....... :)