I’m trying to read MySQL results via a loop. I have this working but I have a small issue.

The code I’m using is

while IFS=$'t' read fieldA fieldB fieldC fieldD; do

    echo "$fieldA $fieldB $fieldC $fieldD"

done < <(mysql -N -u $mysql --password=$pass database -h $host -e "SELECT BLAB BLABBLAB BLABBLAB BLAB")

If one of the fields is empty then the variable is populated with the value from the next field.

eg:

if fieldC is empty echo $feildC will show the results from fieldD

if fieldB and fieldC are empty echo $feildB will show the results from fieldD

How do I account for the empty fields ? I was hoping the variable would return null or blank.

Thanks