How about echo $variable | perl -nae 'print $a[0]' or possibly perl -e 'print((split /\s+/, "'$variable'")[0])' ?

Update:

Very many thanx to LanX - modifed 2nd suggestion to correct parenthesis, but ignored nested quotes comment since they are most definitely deliberate - without them, perl would split the string '$variable' whereas with them, the shell expands the shell variable and perl then splits that string.

A user level that continues to overstate my experience :-))

In reply to Re: Simple awk question by Bloodnok
in thread Simple awk question by czah7

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