[SOLVED] print first 2 characters + second column

udiubu · 05-22-2012, 10:41 AM

Dear all,

I guess a very simple one:

I have a long matrix with 5 columns. It looks like this:

alpha 3 xxx xxx xxx
beta 23 xx xxx xx
gamma 24 xx xxx xxx

I need the following output, in which the first two characters from column 1 are selected, plus the entire column 2:

al 3
be 23
ga 24

a code like cut -c 1-2 would just solve the first column, but not the second.

Any suggestion is highly appreciated!

Sincerely,

Udiubu

colucix · 05-22-2012, 11:22 AM

A simple awk one-liner should do the trick:

Code:

awk '{print substr($1,1,2),$2}' file

udiubu · 05-22-2012, 12:48 PM

Thanks that works perfectly!

Best