command cut

info

1. remove or cut out sections of each line of a file or files

2. when invoking cut use -b -c or -f option, but only one of them

demo

1. cut field

   1. second-through-fourth field of each line

       $ cut -f 2-4 data.txt
      

   2. first-through-second and fourch-through-fifth field

       $ cut -f 1-2,4-5 data.txt
      

   3. third and every field after it

       $ cut -f 3- data.txt
      

2. specifying a delimiter other than tab

   1. cut by :

       $ cut -f 1 -d ':' data.txt
      

   2. delimited by a space

       $ cut -f 1,3 -d ':' --output-delimiter=' ' data.txt
      

   3. delimited by tab

       $ cut -f 1,3 -d ':' --output-delimiter=$'\t' data.txt
      

3. character

   1. output third character

       $ cut -c 3 data.txt
      

   2. output first three characters

       $ cut -c 1,3 data.txt