Ed Morton wrote:
> Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
> > On 2006-08-22, Dave Kelly wrote:
> >
> >>I have a list that is 3 words to each line.
> >>I know how to read the file.
> >>I need only the first 12 character of the 3 word. This word is not
> >>guaranteed to be 12 character long. This is where I'm stuck.
> >>
> >>Is there an equivalent to the old basic 'left$'? Where do I find it?
> >
> >
> > To get the first 12 characters of the third word of every line:
> >
> > awk '{ printf "%s\n", substr($3,1,12) }'
> >
>
> Actually, that'll print the first 12 characters of the 3rd string of
> non-blanks. For the OP - what's a "word"? For example, in this context:
>
> Bob says "Hi!".
>
> is <"Hi!".> a word, or <"Hi!">, or <Hi!> or <Hi> or something else?

No big deal, just trim all non-word with one more pipeline or y|tr
commands.

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XC