how to split string by tab in bash

Question

test1="one  two three   four    five"
echo $test1 | cut -d $'\t' -f2

I have a string which separated by TAB, and I want to get the second word by cut command.

I've found the question How to split a string in bash delimited by tab. But the solution is not used with cut.

Answer 1

This is happening because you need to quote $test1 when you echo:

echo "$test1" | cut -d$'\t' -f2

Otherwise, the format is gone and the tabs converted into spaces:

$ s="hello      bye     ciao"
$ echo "$s"              <--- quoting
hello   bye ciao
$ echo $s                <--- without quotes
hello bye ciao