From the man pages of cut:
--output-delimiter=STRING
use STRING as the output delimiter the default is to use the input delimiter
I tried the following commands and got the error messages:
$ cut -c1-10,20-30 -d --output-delimiter=| filename
cut: the delimiter must be a single character
Try `cut --help' for more information.
-bash: filename: command not found
$ cut -c1-10,20-30 -d --output-delimiter="|" filename
cut: the delimiter must be a single character
Try `cut --help' for more information.
$ cut -c1-10,20-30 -d --output-delimiter='|' filename
cut: the delimiter must be a single character
Try `cut --help' for more information.
$ cut -c1-10,20-30 -d --output-delimiter'|' filename
cut: the delimiter must be a single character
Try `cut --help' for more information.
$ cut -c1-10,20-30 -d --output-delimiter| filename
cut: the delimiter must be a single character
Try `cut --help' for more information.
-bash: filename: command not found
$ cut -c1-10,20-30 -d --output-delimiter"|" filename
cut: the delimiter must be a single character
Try `cut --help' for more information.
Is it possible that you cannot specify a output delim if you don't specify an input delim? What if there is no input delim in the file...such as a fixed length file and you want an output delim?
Can anyone shed some light on this???
Thanks in advance!
With cut -b... and cut -c... the input delimiter is never used anyway. And, since you are creating a single sequence of characters (not fields), I'm not sure you can specify an output field delimiter either. The version of cut I use doesn't have an --output-delimiter option.
You could try:
$ cut -c1-2,4-5 -d --output-delimiter=| t.txt
cut: the delimiter must be a single character
Try `cut --help' for more information.
-bash: t.txt: command not found
Don Cragun, I tried!
$ cut -c1-2,4-5 -d --output-delimiter="|" t.txt
cut: the delimiter must be a single character
Try `cut --help' for more information.
I'm wondering if it is the cygwin environment running on Windows 7!!
Don, the awk command worked nicely!! Much thanks to you both!!
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$ cut -c1-2,4-5 -d --output-delimiter=| t.txt
cut: the delimiter must be a single character
Try `cut --help' for more information.
-bash: t.txt: command not found
If you use -d you must give it a char that represent the input delimiter, after it. You are not giving it anything. Otherwise, it takes "--output-delimiter=" as the parameter, which obviously is incorrect, it complains about it, and pipes it to t.txt as it were a program that accepts data, thus the -bash: t.txt: command not found
Please look closely at what I suggested! There was no -d option in what I suggested and there were double quotes around the | . I'm glad the awk command worked, but you might also be able to use:
Hi Don,
I guess I've trying so many combinations of the command I automatically typed in the -d.
Your suggestion worked! Much much thanks!
+Kojac
---------- Post updated at 06:10 PM ---------- Previous update was at 06:02 PM ----------
Hi DG
I got it resolved, thanks for responding.
There was no input delim needed, (fixed length record) only wanted an output delim and the syntax got the better of me!
