I have a file with multiple columns. I am trying to filter out records that have
identical values in the first two fields. Both the fields hold text values. This
is the command I am using:

```
cat input_file | awk -F'\t' '{if($1==$2) print $1 $2}'

```

When I run this command I get only those rows where the values in the fields are
numeric. The file contains several rows which have identical values in the two
fields which are not numeric. How do I force awk to do string comparison?

Also, is there any other way I can accomplish this? (I am new to Unix envionment
and do not know too many tricks... would appreciate advice)