`cut` Extract columns from each line

Pulls out selected fields or character positions from every line of input. Use it to take one or two columns from a delimited file such as a CSV, or the first few characters of each line.

Synopsis

cut -f LIST [-d DELIM] [-s] [FILE]...
cut -c LIST [FILE]...
cut -b LIST [FILE]...

Common options

Option or form	What it does
`-d DELIM`	Set the field delimiter used with -f. The default is a tab. Use -d, for CSV
`-f LIST`	Select fields by number, counting from 1. LIST can be 2, 1,3 or 2-4
`-c LIST`	Select characters by position, such as -c1-10 for the first ten
`-b LIST`	Select bytes by position. Can split multi-byte characters, so -c is usually better
`-s`	With -f, skip lines that contain no delimiter. Without it, those lines are printed whole
`-w`	macOS and BSD only: treat runs of spaces and tabs as one delimiter. GNU cut does not have it

Examples

Take the first column of a CSV

cut -d, -f1 data.csv

name
ana
bo
cy
dee

Take columns 1 and 3

cut -d, -f1,3 data.csv

name,score
ana,7
bo,3
cy,9
dee,3

Take the first 10 characters of each line

cut -c1-10 app.log

Take the second space-separated field

cut -d' ' -f2 app.log

INFO
ERROR
WARN
ERROR

Count the rows in each team, skipping the header

tail -n +2 data.csv | cut -d, -f2 | sort | uniq -c

List the login names on a system

cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd

Notes

cut treats every delimiter as a separator. Two spaces in a row make an empty field between them, so it works badly on columns aligned with spaces. Use awk for those.
cut does not understand CSV quoting. A comma inside a quoted value still splits the field.
cut cannot reorder columns. -f3,1 prints the same as -f1,3, always in input order. Use awk to change the order.
The delimiter must be a single character. For anything longer, use awk -F.
Lines without the delimiter are printed in full unless you add -s.

cut Extract columns from each line

Synopsis

Common options

Examples

Notes

See also

`cut` Extract columns from each line