Using grep on to assign variables within a line

[editorreilly]

I've got a file ale.txt' that looks like this:

M20922C01 BF INTV 1 14:38:42:13 14:44:15:29 M20922C01
M20922C01 BF INTV 4 14:44:50:24 15:12:02:04 M20922C01
M20922C01 BF INTV 5 14:44:50:24 15:12:02:04 M20922C01
M20922C01 BF INTV 6 14:44:50:24 15:12:02:04 M20922C01

I want to use grep to assign some of the values in the file a variable.

I am using
INPUT=$(cat -v ale.txt | head -1) to assign the variable INPUT to line 1.


echo $INPUT
M20922C01 BF INTV 1 14:38:42:13 14:44:15:29 M20922C01

This is as far as I can get. What I need to do now is assign 'M20922C01 BF INTV 1' to another variable and the numbers '14:38:42:13' to yet another variable.

How do I go about using grep to get those variables assigned? Is grep the best way to go about it?

Thanks in advance for any help.

-Ryan.

[mister_pink]

I wouldn't use grep, although you could. I'd be more inclined to use cut as an easy option, or awk as the more difficult but flexible option. Pipe INPUT through:

cut -d ' ' -f 1

to get the first one.

Edit: Whoops, didn't read carefully enough. But you get the idea! Might need to use awk to get more than one field in a nice way.

[editorreilly]

Thanks. Cut is exactly what I needed. You've saved me from a huge headache!