Columns and awk

[Guest_imported]

Hi

I have a file with entries like this :

dodo:123:tataepe
didi:234:tata:yoho

I would like to use awk so it can parse the first column
and print only 'dodo' and 'didi'
Can anybody help me ?
thx

 

[bigoldbulldog]

Cheapest would be

cut -d&quot;:&quot; -f1 < input

or awk

awk -F&quot;:&quot; '{print $1}' < input Cheers,
ND

bigoldbulldog@hotmail.com