using '\t' doesn't work.

instead, use:

cut -d "$(printf '\x09')" -f 1-3

explenation:

something is wrong with this website or the input file.

x09 (x means: hexadecimal) is the ASCII hex value of the "tab" character. should be the same as '\t'. so we are telling printf to print the tab character.

then, by using $() (which is called "command substitution") we are taking the output of the command inside, which is the printed tab, and using it as the delimeter.

while read str do echo "$str" | sed 's/\n/ /g' | tr " " "\n" >> txt done

readarray ARRAY < txt

for i in "{#i}-1 if [ i fi done

After a while trying... The key were the "double quotes" *

# Solution

while read line; do
    echo "${line}" | cut -d $'\t' -f -3
done

The test file isn't tab delimited. It may have been at one point, but no longer is as piping output to od -c shows NO TAB characters.

0000140   1   5   ,   9   0   0       1       N   e   w       Y   o   r
0000160   k   -   N   e   w   a   r   k   -   B   r   i   d   g   e   p
0000200   o   r   t   ,       N   Y   -   N   J   -   C   T   -   P   A
0000220       C   S   A       2   2   ,   2   1   4   ,   0   8   3  \n
0000240