paste (Unix)

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paste is a Unix command line utility which is used to join files horizontally (parallel merging) by outputting lines consisting of the sequentially corresponding lines of each file specified, separated by tabs, to the standard output. It is effectively the horizontal equivalent to the utility cat command which operates on the vertical plane of two or more files.

[edit] Example

To paste several columns of data together into the file www from files who, where, and when:

paste who where when > www

If the files contain:

who where when

Sam
Dave
Sue

Detroit
Edgewood
Tampa

January 3
February 4
March 19

This creates the file named www containing:

Sam            Detroit         January 3
Dave           Edgewood        February 4
Sue            Tampa           March 19

[edit] See also

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