Mark, Here is the full code and full file : $cat emp_lis.sh emp_sal=`cat emp_1` for f1 in $emp_sal do emp_name=`echo $f1 |awk -f emp.awk` echo $emp_name done $cat emp.awk BEGIN { FS=":" } {print $1} $cat emp_1 ------- john_ray:8743943 joe_smith: 2134093 bill_bates: 3243243 jane_de: 9843243 $. ./emp_lis.sh ------- john_ray joe_smith 2134093 bill_bates 3243243 jane_de 9843243 $ --- On Tue, 1/27/09, Bobak, Mark <Mark.Bobak@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: From: Bobak, Mark <Mark.Bobak@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: RE: ** OT : awk works only for first line To: "ajoshi977@xxxxxxxxx" <ajoshi977@xxxxxxxxx>, "oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Tuesday, January 27, 2009, 8:15 PM Can you show a small sample of your data, one line that works correctly, and one or more that don't work correctly? -Mark ________________________________________ From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of A Joshi [ajoshi977@xxxxxxxxx] Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 7:25 PM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: ** OT : awk works only for first line Hi, I am trying awk to get the first word from each line in a file : I am doing : BEGIN { FS=":" } {print $1} For the first line : it prints the first work. For other lines it prints other words also. I tried to put in FS as space but that did not help. Can someone help? I did try google but could only find example like above. Thanks for help. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l