Try defining it in the FS variable in BEGIN{}, seems to work for me. $ echo -e "ASD\xC2\xA0QWE\xC2\xA0JKL" | awk 'BEGIN{FS="\xC2\xA0"} {print $1}' ASD -Brad On 08/30/2015 06:22 PM, ToddAndMargo wrote: > Hi All, > > DuckDuckGo is failing me here. > > I need to do a > > awk -F "two hex codes" '{print $1}' > > The two hex codes are C2 and A0 > > What is the syntax to put them in the "-F"? > > Many thanks, > -T