Cut command with special characters

[w33mhz]

I am trying to run a cut and delimination is a tab. How do i us that in the cut command

usage i.e

for i in $(cat test.tmp | cut -d '\t' -f2)

This just gives me an error of :
cut: the deliminator must be a single character

So obviously my usage is wrong, can anyone please tell what the correct syntax?

 

[w33mhz]

Also I have tried the following

for i in $(cat test.tmp | cut -d \t -f2)

and that seems to run but the output doesn't seem correct.

 

[Annihilannic]

Just type a 'tab' key between the '' quotes.

Also, no need for cat:

for i in $(cut -d '	' -f2 test.tmp)

Annihilannic.

 

[stevexff]

I think the shell will interpolate the \t only if it is in double quotes. Try

for i in $(cat test.tmp | cut -d [red]"[/red]\t[red]"[/red] -f2)

(untested)

Steve

[small]"Every program can be reduced by one instruction, and every program has at least one bug. Therefore, any program can be reduced to one instruction which doesn't work." (Object:erlDesignPatterns)[/small]