Name

paste — stdin  stdout  - file  -- opt  --help  --version

Synopsis

paste [options] [files]

The paste command is the opposite of cut: it treats several files as vertical columns and combines them on standard output, effectively pasting them side by side:

➜ cat letters
A
B
C
➜ cat numbers
1
2
3
4
5
➜ paste numbers letters
1  A
2  B
3  C
4
5
➜ paste letters numbers
A  1
B  2
C  3
   4
   5

Useful options

-d delimiters

Use the given delimiters characters between columns; the default is a Tab character. Provide a single character (-d:) to be used always, or a list of characters (-dxyz) to be applied in sequence on each line (the first delimiter is x, then y, then z, then x, then y, …).

-s

Transpose the rows and columns of output:

➜ paste -s letters numbers
A   B   C
1   2   3   4   5

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