Extract first and last columns from text file

Question

I have a text file, I only need the first column and the last column. However, the problem is that they are separated by spaces and tabs in random places, which makes it difficult to use cut

 USER02163 name BAD USER5415 ab lsi ei GOOD USER15356 sl oe ow BAD 

Required Conclusion:

 USER02163 BAD USER5415 GOOD USER15356 BAD 

Does anyone have a hacker way to get the desired result?

Answer 1

The easiest way to use awk . Command:

 awk '{print $1, $NF}' filename 

Answer 2

When you specify a field separator as a space in awk, it will contain one and more spaces. So you can use this,

 awk -F " " '{print $1,$NF}' file 

Same as unxnut. Added a field separator that gives a clear view.

Answer 3

Use this sed command

 $ sed -r 's/([^ ]*) (.*) (.*$)/\1 \3/' filename 

Output:

  USER02163 BAD USER5415 GOOD USER15356 BAD