cut

Remove sections from each line of files. Use when extracting columns, fields from CSV/TSV data, or specific character positions.

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cut - Remove Sections from Lines

Synopsis

cut OPTION... [FILE]...

Print selected parts of lines from each FILE to standard output.

Flags

Flag	Long Form	Description
-f	--fields=LIST	Select only these fields (requires -d)
-d	--delimiter=DELIM	Use DELIM instead of TAB for field delimiter
-c	--characters=LIST	Select only these characters
-b	--bytes=LIST	Select only these bytes
-s	--only-delimited	Do not print lines not containing delimiters (with -f)
	--complement	Complement the set of selected bytes, characters, or fields
	--output-delimiter=STRING	Use STRING as the output delimiter
-z	--zero-terminated	Line delimiter is NUL, not newline
	--help	Display help
	--version	Output version

LIST Format

Use comma-separated values and/or ranges:

Format	Meaning
N	Nth byte, character, or field (1-based)
N-	From Nth to end of line
N-M	From Nth to Mth (inclusive)
-M	From first to Mth

Examples

# Extract second field from TAB-separated data
cut -f2 data.tsv

# Extract fields from CSV
cut -d',' -f1,3 data.csv

# Extract first 10 characters of each line
cut -c1-10 file.txt

# Extract from character 5 to end
cut -c5- file.txt

# Extract multiple fields
cut -d':' -f1,3,5 /etc/passwd

# Change output delimiter
cut -d',' -f1,3 --output-delimiter=$'\t' data.csv

# Only print lines that contain the delimiter
cut -d',' -f2 -s data.csv

# Extract everything EXCEPT field 2
cut -d',' --complement -f2 data.csv

# Extract bytes (useful for fixed-width data)
cut -b1-8 fixed_width.txt

# Extract username and shell from /etc/passwd
cut -d: -f1,7 /etc/passwd

Gotchas

cut uses single-character delimiters only. You cannot use a multi-character string as a delimiter. For that, use awk.
Default delimiter is TAB, not space. For space-delimited data, use cut -d' ', but note that multiple consecutive spaces are NOT treated as one delimiter (use awk for that).
-f requires -d to be meaningful with non-TAB delimiters.
Without -s, lines without the delimiter are passed through unchanged. Add -s to skip them.
Fields are 1-indexed, not 0-indexed.
cut cannot reorder fields. cut -f3,1 outputs fields in their original order (1,3), not (3,1). Use awk to reorder.

Repository: flox/floxenvs
Commit: bb1f07d

Last updated: 5 days ago
Created: 5 days ago

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