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cut – Concatenate files and print to standard output

The cut command is a text utility tool used to extract sections from each line of a file and write the result to standard output. It is commonly used to cut out specific columns from a file, but it can also be used to cut out characters or fields.

Overview

The basic syntax for using the cut command is:

cut [OPTION]... [FILE]...

The cut command can be used to extract specific columns from a file by specifying the column number using the -f option. For example, to extract the first column from a file, you would use:

cut -f1 [FILE]

You can also extract multiple columns by specifying a comma-separated list of column numbers. For example, to extract the first and third columns from a file, you would use:

cut -f1,3 [FILE]

By default, cut uses a tab delimiter to separate columns, but you can specify a different delimiter using the -d option. For example, to extract the second column from a file that uses a comma delimiter, you would use:

cut -d',' -f2 [FILE]

You can also extract a specific range of characters from each line of a file using the -c option. For example, to extract the first five characters from each line of a file, you would use:

cut -c1-5 [FILE]

Finally, you can use the -b option to extract specific bytes from each line of a file. For example, to extract the first ten bytes from each line of a file, you would use:

cut -b1-10 [FILE]

Options

The following table lists the available options for the cut command:

Option Description
-b Extract specific bytes
-c Extract specific characters
-d Specify a delimiter
-f Extract specific fields
-n Do not split multi-byte characters
–complement Invert the selection

Troubleshooting tips

  • If you receive an error message that says “cut: No input files specified”, it means that you did not specify a file to operate on. Make sure to include the file name or path after the cut command.
  • If you receive an error message that says “cut: invalid byte, character or field list”, it means that you specified an invalid range of bytes, characters, or fields. Double-check your syntax and make sure that you are using the correct options and arguments.
  • If you receive an error message that says “cut: delimiter must be a single character”, it means that you specified a delimiter that is longer than one character. Make sure to only use a single character as the delimiter.

Notes

  • The cut command is a powerful text utility tool that can be used to extract specific sections of text from files.
  • It is important to carefully specify the options and arguments when using cut, as incorrect syntax can result in unexpected behavior or errors.

Related commands