# To read a tab-separated txt by column **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussion\ **Created:** [May 13, 2021, 1:49am UTC](https://forum.xbench.net/t/to-read-a-tab-separated-txt-by-column/784 "2021-05-13T01:49:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wangximin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ec9cab/32.png) [@wangximin](https://forum.xbench.net/u/wangximin)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2021, 1:49am UTC](https://forum.xbench.net/t/to-read-a-tab-separated-txt-by-column/784/1 "2021-05-13T01:49:01Z")
Hi there, Let’s consider a large txt, which could not be fully loaded by Excel, but it could be read by Xbench. However the source language and target are not in the Column1 and Column2, let’s say, they are in Column3 and Column4. Could we customize the Columns we want to import? In this case, we want to import Column3 and Column4 and displayed as source and target, with Column1 and Column2 as reference. Wish you a nice day, thanks a lot. Best Regards Wang ---
**Author:** ![pcondal](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/forum.xbench.net/pcondal/32/305_2.png) [@pcondal](https://forum.xbench.net/u/pcondal)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 10:59am UTC](https://forum.xbench.net/t/to-read-a-tab-separated-txt-by-column/784/2 "2021-05-16T10:59:24Z")
Currently Xbench requires that source is column 1 and target is column 2. Therefore, if Excel is not able to load the file to do the swap, perhaps you can try preprocessing the file with a different tool such as `awk`. ---
**Author:** ![wangximin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ec9cab/32.png) [@wangximin](https://forum.xbench.net/u/wangximin)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 12:52pm UTC](https://forum.xbench.net/t/to-read-a-tab-separated-txt-by-column/784/3 "2021-05-16T12:52:24Z")
Thanks a lot for your help. I will learn these tools.