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.
- Selecting specific fields in a file
cut -d "delimiter" -f (field number) file.txt
- Selecting specific characters:
cut -c [(k)-(n)/(k),(n)/(n)] filename
Here, 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 byte
Tabs and backspaces are treated like as a character of 1 byte.
cut OPTION... [FILE]...
| 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 |