cut

Remove sections from each line of files

Supplemental Information

The cut command is used to display specific parts of lines and remove specified fields from a file. It is frequently used to extract columns from a text file or piped data.

Note: The cut command's primary function is to cut out selected portions of each line of a file and write the result to standard output. It can use bytes (-b), characters (-c), or fields (-f) delimited by a character (-d).

Syntax

cut (options) (parameters)

Options

-b: Select only these bytes;
-c: Select only these characters;
-d: Use delimiter instead of TAB for field delimiter;
-f: Select only these fields; also print any line that contains no delimiter character, unless the -s option is specified;
-n: (with -b) do not split multi-byte characters;
--complement: Complement the set of selected bytes, characters or fields;
--out-delimiter=STRING: Use STRING as the output delimiter;
--help: Display help information;
--version: Display version information.

Parameters

File: The file to be filtered.

Examples

Given a student report with No, Name, Mark, and Percent:

[root@localhost text]# cat test.txt
No Name Mark Percent
01 tom 69 91
02 jack 71 87
03 alex 68 98

Use the -f option to extract specific fields:

[root@localhost text]# cut -f 1 test.txt
No
01
02
03

[root@localhost text]# cut -f2,3 test.txt
Name Mark
tom 69
jack 71
alex 68

Use the --complement option to extract all columns except the specified ones:

[root@localhost text]# cut -f2 --complement test.txt
No Mark Percent
01 69 91
02 71 87
03 68 98

Use the -d option to specify a field delimiter:

[root@localhost text]# cat test2.txt
No;Name;Mark;Percent
01;tom;69;91
02;jack;71;87
03;alex;68;98

[root@localhost text]# cut -f2 -d";" test2.txt
Name
tom
jack
alex

Specifying Character or Byte Ranges

The cut command can display a range of characters or bytes:

• N-: From the Nth byte/character/field to the end of the line;
• N-M: From the Nth to the Mth (inclusive) byte/character/field;
• -M: From the 1st to the Mth (inclusive) byte/character/field.

Combine these with the following options:

• -b: Bytes;
• -c: Characters;
• -f: Fields.

Examples

[root@localhost text]# cat test.txt
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Print the 1st to 3rd characters:

[root@localhost text]# cut -c1-3 test.txt
abc
abc
abc
abc
abc

Print the first 2 characters:

[root@localhost text]# cut -c-2 test.txt
ab
ab
ab
ab
ab

Print from the 5th character to the end:

[root@localhost text]# cut -c5- test.txt
efghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
efghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
efghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
efghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
efghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Print the last 5 characters:

Unfortunately, cut does not directly support counting from the end. However, this can be achieved by reversing the string:

[root@localhost text]# cat test.txt | rev | cut -c -5 | rev
vwxyz
vwxyz
vwxyz
vwxyz
vwxyz