90

For example, I wanted to use the sort utility with the -t option to specify tab separators, but

sort -t "\t"

doesn't work.

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2
  • Why won't '\011' work? Tried it on my Linux box and for some reason it doen't work.
    – Bing Bang
    Jun 3, 2020 at 22:55
  • I tried \t and it doesn't work, neither does \n, Is there a csh switch to turn off escaped characters? If there is, I've never heard of it.
    – Bing Bang
    Jun 3, 2020 at 23:26

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
109

Don't use double quotes.

sort -t $'\t'

Or I think Ctrl V inserts a Tab??

Edit:

http://www.gnu.org/s/bash/manual/html_node/ANSI_002dC-Quoting.html#ANSI_002dC-Quoting

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6
  • Doesn't tab insert a tab?
    – RedGrittyBrick
    Nov 28, 2011 at 16:32
  • 6
    @RedGrittyBrick Tab completes.
    – Daniel Beck ♦
    Nov 28, 2011 at 16:48
  • 17
    Control-V alone won't work; Control-V + Tab will. I like the $'...' trick, though; now I've learned something new. :-)
    – L2G
    Nov 28, 2011 at 17:04
  • I've always learned it as $' '. It allows you to enter a string, but also have escaped characters. Double quoting literally prints \t If you leave off the quotes you get a tab character.
    – surfasb
    Nov 28, 2011 at 17:09
  • won't work in dash
    – CervEd
    Feb 9 at 12:59
73

Try Control-v, then Tab. If you see the cursor tab over to the right, it worked.

According to the comment by Mark you can also try Control-v and then Control-i.

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7
  • 1
    When I do this, I get a real tab (i.e. indentation).
    – Daniel Beck ♦
    Nov 28, 2011 at 16:49
  • 3
    Oops. You're right. But it is entering the tab character, not doing command-line completion (which is what bash normally does with a tab). I tried sort -t " " (with the literal tab as described above) and it worked for me.
    – L2G
    Nov 28, 2011 at 16:57
  • Yep, that's what I meant by indentation. Didn't know a better term.
    – Daniel Beck ♦
    Nov 28, 2011 at 17:13
  • 1
    Ctrl-v, Ctrl-i will also work (I found this answer here). Also, I think a Ctrl-q, Ctrl-v, Tab will work. Thanks L2G!
    – Mark
    Nov 28, 2011 at 17:20
  • BTW, I would love to accept both answers, but since I think surfasb's solution is more readable, I accepted hers. I like yours, too, though, so voted it up. Thanks!
    – Mark
    Nov 28, 2011 at 17:23
1

To put tab:

  • First press Ctr + v and

  • Then press tab key.

Example

Using above mentioned step adding tab enter image description here

Saving in file enter image description here

Final Output enter image description here

Reference: https://linuxjourney.com/lesson/cut-command

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0

You can also use printf:

sort -t "$(printf "\t")"

Not like $'\t', printf use double quotes which allow you to use environment variables, like below:

char="\t" # any source just plain text

sort -t "$(printf "$char")"

Single quote is static and not flexible, though it's simple, you can choose based on your requirement.

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