output the 2nd column of a file

given a file with two columns, separatedly by standard white space

a b
c d
f g
  h

how do I output the second column

1. cut -d' ' -f2
2. awk '{print $2}'

Because the last line of your example data has no first column you'll have to parse it as fixed width columns:

awk 'BEGIN {FIELDWIDTHS = "2 1"} {print $2}'