i'm reading a few variables from a file using

```
while read a b c; do
  (something)
done < filename

```

is there an elegant way to skip a variable (read in an empty value), i.e. if I want a=1 b= c=3, what should I write in the file?

Right now i'm putting

```
1 "" 3

```

and then use 

b=$(echo $b | tr -d \" )

but this is pretty cumbersome, IMHO

any ideas?