shell - UNIX: How to pick specific column value from result of sort? -

i'm trying sort output of youtube-dl -f resolution , assign format code of highest res result variable download file using youtube-dl -f . i'm able sort output of first step youtube-dl -f https://www.youtube.com/watch\?v\=yknxef4kmsy | sort -b -r -k3

with example, format code highest video res 43. how assign value variable , use further in script writing?

you can format code using command:

format_code=$(youtube-dl -f https://www.youtube.com/watch\?v\=yknxef4kmsy | sort -b -r -k3 -n | head -1 | cut -d" " -f1) 

this sort sort output based on 3rd field (resolution), take first line using head command , gets first field (format code) using cut

$ echo $format_code > 43 

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to desired output in python:

from subprocess import check_output  output = check_output("youtube-dl -f https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yknxef4kmsy | sort -b -r -k3 -n | head -1 | cut -d' ' -f1", shell=true)  format_code = output.strip() # remove trailing '\n' # or format_code = int(output) if want integer 

and format_code variable have desired value 43 in case.