Learn `cut` — 25 Examples with Outputs

Compact, copy-paste-ready HTML file with commands and sample outputs. Use it as a quick reference or print it to PDF.

25 examples

Example 1 — Extract first field (default delimiter: TAB)Fields: TAB, -f1

cat <<'EOF' > data.txt
alice	bob	charlie
dave	erin	frank
EOF

cut -f1 data.txt

Output:

alice
dave

Example 2 — Extract multiple fields (1 and 3) with comma delimiter-d',' -f1,3

cat <<'EOF' > csv.txt
alice,bob,charlie
dave,erin,frank
EOF

cut -d',' -f1,3 csv.txt

Output:

alice,charlie
dave,frank

Example 3 — Extract a range of fields (2–4)-d':' -f2-4

cat <<'EOF' > example.txt
one:two:three:four:five
a:b:c:d:e
EOF

cut -d':' -f2-4 example.txt

Output:

two:three:four
b:c:d

Example 4 — Extract from a field to end (-f3-)Delimiter: |

cat <<'EOF' > fruits.txt
apple|banana|cherry|date
x|y|z
EOF

cut -d'|' -f3- fruits.txt

Output:

cherry|date
z

Example 5 — Extract up to a field (-f-2)Delimiter: -

cat <<'EOF' > letters.txt
1-2-3-4
a-b-c-d-e
EOF

cut -d'-' -f-2 letters.txt

Output:

1-2
a-b

Example 6 — Using --complement to remove fields (remove field 2)Delimiter: :

cat <<'EOF' > people.txt
first:middle:last
john:fitzgerald:kennedy
jane:anna:doe
EOF

cut -d':' --complement -f2 people.txt

Output:

first:last
john:kennedy
jane:doe

Example 7 — Suppress lines with no delimiter (-s)Use when some lines lack the delimiter

cat <<'EOF' > mixed.txt
foo,bar,baz
no_delim_line
a,b,c
EOF

cut -d',' -f2 -s mixed.txt

Output:

bar
b

Example 8 — Extract character positions (-c1-5)Characters 1–5

cat <<'EOF' > words.txt
elephant
cat
lioness
EOF

cut -c1-5 words.txt

Output:

eleph
cat
lione

Example 9 — Extract single byte positions (-b1-3)Be careful with UTF-8 multibyte chars

cat <<'EOF' > bytes.txt
abcdef
123456
EOF

cut -b1-3 bytes.txt

Output:

abc
123

Example 10 — Extract the last field using rev + cutA simple trick

cat <<'EOF' > path.txt
/home/user/docs/report.txt
/var/log/syslog
EOF

rev path.txt | cut -d'/' -f1 | rev

Output:

report.txt
syslog

Example 11 — Change output delimiter (GNU --output-delimiter)Replace delimiter between selected fields

cat <<'EOF' > data2.txt
a,b,c
d,e,f
EOF

cut -d',' -f1,3 --output-delimiter='|' data2.txt

Output:

a|c
d|f

Example 12 — Cut from a pipeline: PIDs from psBe aware output varies by system

ps aux | head -n 3 | tr -s ' ' | cut -d' ' -f2

Output (illustrative):

1
234
5678

Example 13 — Extract filename extensionsUse rev trick to get last dot-separated part

cat <<'EOF' > files.txt
archive.tar.gz
photo.jpg
README
EOF

rev files.txt | cut -d'.' -f1 | rev

Output:

gz
jpg
README

Example 14 — Tab-separated column (default)Get column 2

cat <<'EOF' > tabs.txt
col1	col2	col3
1	2	3
x	y	z
EOF

cut -f2 tabs.txt

Output:

col2
2
y

Example 15 — Extract usernames from /etc/passwdField 1 is username

head -n 5 /etc/passwd | cut -d':' -f1

Output (example):

root
daemon
bin
sys
sync

Example 16 — Extract unique first fields then sortCombine with sort -u

cat <<'EOF' > colors.csv
red,blue,green
blue,yellow,red
green,red,blue
EOF

cut -d',' -f1 colors.csv | sort -u

Output:

green
red

Example 17 — Multiple character ranges-c1-3,7-9

cat <<'EOF' > text.txt
ABCDEFGHIJ
0123456789
EOF

cut -c1-3,7-9 text.txt

Output:

ABCGHI
012678

Example 18 — Fixed-width columns (bytes)Use -b for byte ranges

cat <<'EOF' > report.txt
ID  Name       Score
01  Alice      093
02  Bob        087
EOF

cut -b1-3,5-14,16-18 report.txt

Output:

ID  Name       Score
01  Alice      093
02  Bob        087

Example 19 — Remove leading field (remove field 1)--complement -f1

cat <<'EOF' > sample.txt
A:1:foo:bar
B:2:baz:qux
EOF

cut -d':' --complement -f1 sample.txt

Output:

1:foo:bar
2:baz:qux

Example 20 — Extract header field from CSVShow column name for field 2

cat <<'EOF' > dataset.csv
id,name,email
1,Alice,a@example.com
2,Bob,b@example.com
EOF

head -n1 dataset.csv | cut -d',' -f2

Output:

name

Example 21 — Use paste then cutCombine two files side-by-side

cat <<'EOF' > a.txt
apple
banana
cherry
EOF

cat <<'EOF' > b.txt
red
yellow
red
EOF

paste a.txt b.txt | cut -f1

Output:

apple
banana
cherry

Example 22 — Space-separated columns (squeeze spaces first)Use tr -s ' ' then cut

cat <<'EOF' > spaced.txt
col1   col2    col3
one    two     three
EOF

tr -s ' ' < spaced.txt | cut -d' ' -f3

Output:

col3
three

Example 23 — Fields that contain commas (use alternate delimiter)Delimiter: |

cat <<'EOF' > weird.txt
"Smith, John"|30|"New York, NY"
"Doe, Jane"|25|"San Francisco, CA"
EOF

cut -d'|' -f1,3 weird.txt

Output:

"Smith, John"|"New York, NY"
"Doe, Jane"|"San Francisco, CA"

Example 24 — seq + paste to create columnsGroup sequence into columns and cut column 2

seq 1 6 | paste - - - | cut -f2

Output:

2
5

Example 25 — Combine grep + cutFilter lines then extract fields

cat <<'EOF' > services.txt
ssh:22:open
http:80:open
smtp:25:closed
ftp:21:open
EOF

grep ':open$' services.txt | cut -d':' -f1,2

Output:

ssh:22
http:80
ftp:21