Cut command linux

cut

cut options [files]
Cut out selected columns or fields from one or more files.





In the following options, list is a sequence of integers. Use a comma between separate values, and a hyphen to specify a range (e.g., 1-10,15,20 or 50-). See also paste and join.

Options

-b list, --bytes list

Specify list of positions; only bytes in these positions will be printed.

-c list, --characters list

Cut the column positions identified in list. Column numbers start with 1.

-d c, --delimiter c

Use with -f to specify field delimiter as character c (default is tab); special characters (e.g., a space) must be quoted.

-f list, --fields list

Cut the fields identified in list.

-n

Don't split multibyte characters.

-s, --only-delimited

Use with -f to suppress lines without delimiters.

--output-delimiter=string

Use string as the output delimiter. By default, the output delimiter is the same as the input delimiter.

--help

Print help message and exit.

--version

Print version information and exit.

Examples

Extract usernames and real names from /etc/passwd:
cut -d: -f1,5 /etc/passwd
Find out who is logged on, but list only login names:
who | cut -d" " -f1
Cut characters in the fourth column of file, and paste them back as the first column in the same file:
cut -c4 file | paste - file

1. cut -c1-3 text.txt

   Output:
   

   Thi

   Cut the first three letters from the above line.
   

2. cut -d, -f1,2 text.txt

   Output:

   This is, an example program

   The above command is used to split the fields using delimiter and cut the first two fields.