Question

In bash how can I read an input file and create variables for specific lines and columns from the input file?

For example I have

Q W E R
T Y U I
A S D F

So if I wanted to make a variable where
Variable = U, how would I create it.

Answer 1

I have created a input file sample.txt as shown below.

Now in the file 'main.sh', I have written the bash script as below

#!/bin/bash

while read line

do

# storing each line of input file as an array in variable 'var'

var=($line)

# to print each line in the file stored in variable var

echo ${var[*]}

# to print a specific word in the line(here i have printed 3rd word in each line)

echo ${var[2]}

done<sample.txt

OUTPUT:

Suppose I want to print a specific in the file and a specific word in that line(I am using a variable 'i' to achieve the same by incrementing it through each iteration of the while loop)

#!/bin/bash

i=1

while read line

do

# storing each line of input file as an array in variable 'var'

var=($line)

# to print specific line in file (say line 2) and a specific word(say 3rd word) in that line

if [ $i -eq 2 ]; then

echo ${var[*]}

echo ${var[2]}

fi

i=$(($i+1))

done<sample.txt

OUTPUT: