[SOLVED] Copying 1column of data file to new file?

[LRG]

Is it possible to take only 1 specific column of a big data file and copy it into a new file i made in vi? I'm trying to make a graph but that involves moving that one column of data to a new file, because I don't want to use any other column in the graph.

Thanks

[lomcevak]

Try using awk. Assuming the columns are separated by spaces and let's say you want the 3rd column the command would look like:

awk '{print $3}' filename > newfilename

If the columns are separated by something other than spaces, let's say commas, then the -F option is needed.

awk -F',' '{print $3}' filename > newfilename

[egan]

Or, you could use cut whose sole purpose is to do such things.

The equivalents for the above examples of awk would be:
cut -f 3 < filename > newfilename
cut -d "," -f 3 < filename > newfilename

[LRG]

Thank you both so much! it worked, and that's relatively simple, I don't know why I could not find that anywhere.