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From: rouben@math9.math.umbc.edu (Rouben Rostamian)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: file manipulation (easy question I think)
Message-ID: <1991Jun17.231951.5873@umbc3.umbc.edu>
Date: 17 Jun 91 23:19:51 GMT
References: <1991Jun17.200748.19324@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu>
Sender: newspost@umbc3.umbc.edu (News  posting account)
Organization: University of Maryland Baltimore County, Mathmatics Department
Lines: 18

In article <1991Jun17.200748.19324@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> jpd@tardis.cl.msu.edu (Joe P. DeCello) writes:
>
>What is this best (easiest) way in which to get the first word
>of each line in a text file to a single line in a new text file?

Depends what you mean why "word".  If a "word" is taken to mean any
contiguous sequence of non-blank characters, then following should do:

sed 's/[ T]*\([^ T]*\).*/\1/'  infile >outfile

where I have typed a "T" to show a tab character.  You should type a
tab where you see a "T".

--
Rouben Rostamian                          Telephone: (301) 455-2458
Department of Mathematics and Statistics  e-mail:
University of Maryland Baltimore County   bitnet: rostamian@umbc.bitnet
Baltimore, MD 21228,  U.S.A.              internet: rouben@math9.math.umbc.edu