cuts is a command-line utility that enhances the traditional Unix/POSIX cut tool for extracting columns from text files.
It is designed to keep the interface simple while handling more awkward real-world data, including mixed delimiters, flexible column selection, and side-by-side extraction from multiple files.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Automatically detects common input delimiters such as commas, tabs, and whitespace sequences.
- Supports multi-character and Perl regular expression delimiters for more complex parsing tasks.
- Handles negative column numbers, letting you select fields relative to the end of a line.
- Supports reverse ranges and wrap-around ranges for flexible field ordering.
- Can extract and join columns from multiple files in a single command.
- Uses sensible defaults, including standard input as a source and a tab as the default output delimiter.
- Allows personal configuration through an optional
~/.cuts.plfile. - Treats missing fields leniently by outputting empty values instead of failing.
Website: github.com/arielf/cuts
Support:
Developer: Ariel Faigon
License: Artistic License 2.0
cuts is written in Perl. Learn Perl with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Alternatives to cut | |
|---|---|
| hck | Drop-in replacement that can use a regex delimiter instead of a fixed string |
| tuc | Drop-in replacement for cut |
| choose | Human-friendly and fast alternative to cut |
| ccut | Colum's cut |
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