That's because cut sucks when fields can be separated by multiple space or tab characters. # printf '1 2\t3' | cut -f 2 3 # printf '1 2\t3' | awk '

That's because cut sucks when fields can be separated by multiple space or tab characters. # printf '1 2\t3' | cut -f 2 3 # printf '1 2\t3' | awk '{print $2}' 2 # printf '1 2\t\t3' | cut -f 2 # printf '1 2\t\t3' | awk '{print $2}' 2