The cut command¶
The cut command lets you remove sections from each line of files. Print selected parts of lines from each FILE to standard output. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.
Usage and Examples:¶
-
Selecting specific fields in a file
cut -d "delimiter" -f (field number) file.txt -
Selecting specific characters:
cut -c [(k)-(n)/(k),(n)/(n)] filenameHere, k denotes the starting position of the character and n denotes the ending position of the character in each line, if k and n are separated by “-” otherwise they are only the position of character in each line from the file taken as an input. -
Selecting specific bytes:
cut -b 1,2,3 filename //select bytes 1,2 and 3 cut -b 1-4 filename //select bytes 1 through 4 cut -b 1- filename //select bytes 1 through the end of file cut -b -4 filename //select bytes from the beginning till the 4th byteTabs and backspaces are treated like as a character of 1 byte.
Syntax:¶
cut OPTION... [FILE]...
Additional Flags and their Functionalities:¶
| Short Flag | Long Flag | Description |
|---|---|---|
-b | --bytes=LIST | select only these bytes |
-c | --characters=LIST | select only these characters |
-d | --delimiter=DELIM | use DELIM instead of TAB for field delimiter |
-f | --fields | select only these fields; also print any line that contains no delimiter character, unless the -s option is specified |
-s | --only-delimited | do not print lines not containing delimiters |
-z | --zero-terminated | line delimiter is NUL, not newline |