The cut utility selects, or “cuts,” characters or fields from its standard input and sends them to its standard output. Fields are separated by tabs by default, but you may supply a command-line option to change the field delimiter (i.e., the field-separator character). cut's definition of fields is less general than awk's.
A common use of cut might be to pull out just the login name of logged-on users from the output of who. For example, the following pipeline generates a sorted, unique list of the logged-on users:
who | cut -c1-8 | sort | uniq
The options for cut are:
-c list-f list-d delim-sThe awk implementation of cut uses the getopt library
function (see Getopt Function)
and the join library function
(see Join Function).
The program begins with a comment describing the options, the library
functions needed, and a usage function that prints out a usage
message and exits. usage is called if invalid arguments are
supplied:
# cut.awk --- implement cut in awk
# Options:
# -f list Cut fields
# -d c Field delimiter character
# -c list Cut characters
#
# -s Suppress lines without the delimiter
#
# Requires getopt and join library functions
function usage( e1, e2)
{
e1 = "usage: cut [-f list] [-d c] [-s] [files...]"
e2 = "usage: cut [-c list] [files...]"
print e1 > "/dev/stderr"
print e2 > "/dev/stderr"
exit 1
}
The variables e1 and e2 are used so that the function
fits nicely on the
page.
screen.
Next comes a BEGIN rule that parses the command-line options.
It sets FS to a single TAB character, because that is cut's
default field separator. The output field separator is also set to be the
same as the input field separator. Then getopt is used to step
through the command-line options. Exactly one of the variables
by_fields or by_chars is set to true, to indicate that
processing should be done by fields or by characters, respectively.
When cutting by characters, the output field separator is set to the null
string:
BEGIN \
{
FS = "\t" # default
OFS = FS
while ((c = getopt(ARGC, ARGV, "sf:c:d:")) != -1) {
if (c == "f") {
by_fields = 1
fieldlist = Optarg
} else if (c == "c") {
by_chars = 1
fieldlist = Optarg
OFS = ""
} else if (c == "d") {
if (length(Optarg) > 1) {
printf("Using first character of %s" \
" for delimiter\n", Optarg) > "/dev/stderr"
Optarg = substr(Optarg, 1, 1)
}
FS = Optarg
OFS = FS
if (FS == " ") # defeat awk semantics
FS = "[ ]"
} else if (c == "s")
suppress++
else
usage()
}
for (i = 1; i < Optind; i++)
ARGV[i] = ""
Special care is taken when the field delimiter is a space. Using
a single space (" ") for the value of FS is
incorrect—awk would separate fields with runs of spaces,
tabs, and/or newlines, and we want them to be separated with individual
spaces. Also, note that after getopt is through, we have to
clear out all the elements of ARGV from 1 to Optind,
so that awk does not try to process the command-line options
as file names.
After dealing with the command-line options, the program verifies that the
options make sense. Only one or the other of -c and -f
should be used, and both require a field list. Then the program calls
either set_fieldlist or set_charlist to pull apart the
list of fields or characters:
if (by_fields && by_chars)
usage()
if (by_fields == 0 && by_chars == 0)
by_fields = 1 # default
if (fieldlist == "") {
print "cut: needs list for -c or -f" > "/dev/stderr"
exit 1
}
if (by_fields)
set_fieldlist()
else
set_charlist()
}
set_fieldlist is used to split the field list apart at the commas
and into an array. Then, for each element of the array, it looks to
see if it is actually a range, and if so, splits it apart. The range
is verified to make sure the first number is smaller than the second.
Each number in the list is added to the flist array, which
simply lists the fields that will be printed. Normal field splitting
is used. The program lets awk handle the job of doing the
field splitting:
function set_fieldlist( n, m, i, j, k, f, g)
{
n = split(fieldlist, f, ",")
j = 1 # index in flist
for (i = 1; i <= n; i++) {
if (index(f[i], "-") != 0) { # a range
m = split(f[i], g, "-")
if (m != 2 || g[1] >= g[2]) {
printf("bad field list: %s\n",
f[i]) > "/dev/stderr"
exit 1
}
for (k = g[1]; k <= g[2]; k++)
flist[j++] = k
} else
flist[j++] = f[i]
}
nfields = j - 1
}
The set_charlist function is more complicated than set_fieldlist.
The idea here is to use gawk's FIELDWIDTHS variable
(see Constant Size),
which describes constant-width input. When using a character list, that is
exactly what we have.
Setting up FIELDWIDTHS is more complicated than simply listing the
fields that need to be printed. We have to keep track of the fields to
print and also the intervening characters that have to be skipped.
For example, suppose you wanted characters 1 through 8, 15, and
22 through 35. You would use `-c 1-8,15,22-35'. The necessary value
for FIELDWIDTHS is "8 6 1 6 14". This yields five
fields, and the fields to print
are $1, $3, and $5.
The intermediate fields are filler,
which is stuff in between the desired data.
flist lists the fields to print, and t tracks the
complete field list, including filler fields:
function set_charlist( field, i, j, f, g, t,
filler, last, len)
{
field = 1 # count total fields
n = split(fieldlist, f, ",")
j = 1 # index in flist
for (i = 1; i <= n; i++) {
if (index(f[i], "-") != 0) { # range
m = split(f[i], g, "-")
if (m != 2 || g[1] >= g[2]) {
printf("bad character list: %s\n",
f[i]) > "/dev/stderr"
exit 1
}
len = g[2] - g[1] + 1
if (g[1] > 1) # compute length of filler
filler = g[1] - last - 1
else
filler = 0
if (filler)
t[field++] = filler
t[field++] = len # length of field
last = g[2]
flist[j++] = field - 1
} else {
if (f[i] > 1)
filler = f[i] - last - 1
else
filler = 0
if (filler)
t[field++] = filler
t[field++] = 1
last = f[i]
flist[j++] = field - 1
}
}
FIELDWIDTHS = join(t, 1, field - 1)
nfields = j - 1
}
Next is the rule that actually processes the data. If the -s option
is given, then suppress is true. The first if statement
makes sure that the input record does have the field separator. If
cut is processing fields, suppress is true, and the field
separator character is not in the record, then the record is skipped.
If the record is valid, then gawk has split the data
into fields, either using the character in FS or using fixed-length
fields and FIELDWIDTHS. The loop goes through the list of fields
that should be printed. The corresponding field is printed if it contains data.
If the next field also has data, then the separator character is
written out between the fields:
{
if (by_fields && suppress && index($0, FS) != 0)
next
for (i = 1; i <= nfields; i++) {
if ($flist[i] != "") {
printf "%s", $flist[i]
if (i < nfields && $flist[i+1] != "")
printf "%s", OFS
}
}
print ""
}
This version of cut relies on gawk's FIELDWIDTHS
variable to do the character-based cutting. While it is possible in
other awk implementations to use substr
(see String Functions),
it is also extremely painful.
The FIELDWIDTHS variable supplies an elegant solution to the problem
of picking the input line apart by characters.