IFS="\t" while read line do echo $line | cut -f 1-3 done

while read c do echo "$c" | cut -f1-3 done

for (( i=0; i<100; i++ )); do
  read line
  if [[ -n ${line} ]]; then
    echo ${line} | cut -f 1-3 -d $'\t' -s
  fi
done;

This is not working for me? I'm not sure why? It works o my local machine and it even follows the suggestion in the editoriral. I can see others have passed the test so not sure what's happening. Thanks in advance.

as the tab is the default delimiter of cut. so you can use:

cut -f1-3

echo "$(cut -f 1-3)"