first word from the line

Like

 echo '123 test xxxx yyyy' | sed 's/\([^ ]*\).*/\1/'

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If you want to store it,

str=$(echo '123 test xxxx yyyy' | sed 's/\([^ ]*\).*/\1/')

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Or, using awk as in your example:

str=$(echo '123 test xxxx yyyy' |awk '{ print $1 }')

#!/bin/bash
str='123 test xxxx yyyy'
echo ${str/ *}

Alternatively:

#!/bin/ksh
str='123 test xxxx yyyy'
echo ${str%% *}

A simpler sed:
echo '123 test xxxx yyyy' | sed 's/ .*//'

How about good ol' "cut"?

str=$(echo '123 test xxxx yyyy' | cut -f1 -d" ")

Hi Experts,

Both are working fine.. seperately.. But when i am trying use variable in the place hard coded string. it is not working..  Please let me know what i am missing here.

#!/bin/sh
while read mStr; do
str=$(echo "${mStr}" | sed 's/\([^ ]*\).*/\1/')
#str=$(echo  "${mStr}" |awk '{ print $1 }')
echo $str

done < file1.txt

Thanks
Chanikya.

What are the results of your version?

What's in file1.txt?

If file1.txt contains just strings like the one in your example it should work fine.

#!/bin/bash                                                                                                                                  
while read mStr; do
echo ${mStr%% *}
done < file1.txt

cat file1.txt | while read mstr; do echo "${mstr}" | cut -d" " -f1; done;

awk '{ print $1 }'  file1.txt

Hi woolmilkporc,

Yes the file contains the lines similar to as i specified in the string.

file1.txt

1 ttt
2 xxx
4 ggg

Note:I would like to check with line not with entire file.

Thanks
Chanikya..

Hi Experts,

Pleas let me know where i am doing wrong.

-bash-3.00$ str1="123 567 897"
-bash-3.00$ str=$(echo ${str1} | awk '{print $1 }')
-bash-3.00$ echo $str
123       

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 --- It is working as expected. But the below code is not working

-bash-3.00$ more filecompare.sh
#!/bin/sh
while read str1; do
echo "$str1"
str=$(echo "${str1}" | awk '{print $1 }')
echo $str
#  mCnt=$`egrep -c ${mStr} file2.txt`
#echo ${mCnt}
#  if  test ${mCnt} -eq  "0" ; then
#    echo "ABSENT"
#  else
#    echo ${mStr}
#  fi

done < file1.txt

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Here you see the error

-bash-3.00$ sh filecompare.sh
filecompare.sh: syntax error at line 4: `str=$' unexpected
-bash-3.00$

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-bash-3.00$ more file1.txt
1 test
2 xxx
3 zzz
-bash-3.00$

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Thanks,
Chanikya.

Hi Experts,

Thanks a lot for all your solutions and suggestions.

Thanks
Chanikya.