# Example 4 has used the program "col" for setting tabs as field # delimiters. Not bad, but there is another way to do it with the # stream editor "sed". who | sed -E 's/ {2,}/\t/g' | cut -f3 # You can compare the results, the way the tabs are set using either # col or sed, with the following two commands. who | col | od -a who | sed -E 's/ {2,}/\t/g' | od -a