title: Using awk in BASH alias or function
body: <p>I've a command that works just fine at the command line, but not when I try to put it in an alias or function.</p>
  
  <pre><code>$ awk '{print $1}' /tmp/textfile
  0
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>That's correct, as '0' is in position 1 of "textfile".</p>
  
  <pre><code>$ alias a="awk '{print $1}' /tmp/textfile"
  $ a
  1 0 136 94
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>That's the entire line in "textfile".  I've tried every variety of quotes, parentheses and backticks that I could imagine might work.  I can get the same problem in a wide variety of formats. </p>
  
  <p>What am I not understanding?</p>