paste: Merge files line by line

Overview

The `paste` command takes content from the same line number across multiple input files and combines them into a single line. By default, it uses a tab character to separate the content from each file, but you can specify a custom delimiter using the `-d` option.

Key Features

Horizontally merges lines from multiple files
Allows specifying custom delimiters (using the -d option)
Processes data from standard input or files
Useful for creating simple CSV or TSV files

Key Options

Delimiter and Processing

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Description:

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Usage Examples

Basic Usage (Tab Delimited)

echo "apple\nbanana" > fruits.txt
echo "red\nyellow" > colors.txt
paste fruits.txt colors.txt

Merges the content of two files line by line, separated by tabs.

Merging with Comma (,) Delimiter

echo "apple\nbanana" > fruits.txt
echo "red\nyellow" > colors.txt
paste -d ',' fruits.txt colors.txt

Uses the `-d` option to specify a comma as the delimiter.

Merging with Space Delimiter

echo "apple\nbanana" > fruits.txt
echo "red\nyellow" > colors.txt
paste -d ' ' fruits.txt colors.txt

Merges file content using a space as the delimiter.

Using Multiple Delimiters Cyclically

echo "1\n2\n3" > file1.txt
echo "A\nB\nC" > file2.txt
echo "X\nY\nZ" > file3.txt
paste -d ',=' file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

When multiple delimiters are specified with the `-d` option, they are applied cyclically to each file.

Using with Standard Input

echo "1\n2\n3" | paste -d ',' - <(echo "A\nB\nC")

Uses `-` instead of a filename to utilize standard input as an input for `paste`.

Serial Processing (-s Option)

echo "1\n2\n3" > num.txt
echo "A\nB\nC" > char.txt
paste -s num.txt char.txt

Uses the `-s` option to process all lines of each file before moving to the next.

Tips & Notes

The `paste` command is a simple yet powerful text processing tool. It is particularly useful for creating CSV files or analyzing log files.

Usage Tips

Using Multiple Delimiters: Specifying multiple characters with the -d option applies delimiters cyclically to each input file. For example, paste -d ',|' file1 file2 file3 uses , between file1 and file2, and | between file2 and file3.
Processing Standard Input: Using - instead of a filename allows paste to accept standard input, which is very useful in pipelines.
Combining with Other Commands: More complex data manipulation can be achieved by combining paste with other text processing commands like cut, awk, and sed. For instance, you can extract specific columns using cut and then merge them with paste.
Handling Empty Lines: If an input file contains empty lines, paste will insert an empty string at that position, outputting only the delimiter.