How do I enter a literal tab character in a bash shell?

Question

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

sort -t "\t"

doesn't work.

surfasb · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-28T17:13:52.263

115

Don't use double quotes.

sort -t $'\t'

Or I think Ctrl V inserts a Tab??

Edit:

edited Nov 28 '11 at 17:13

answered Nov 28 '11 at 16:24

surfasb

score 78 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 05 '16 at 16:29

78

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.

edited Aug 05 '16 at 16:29

answered Nov 28 '11 at 16:43

L2G

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 13 '22 at 01:10

2

To put tab:

Using above mentioned step adding tab

Saving in file

Final Output

answered Oct 13 '22 at 01:10

Nikhil

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 18 '21 at 12:08

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.