Linux/Unix cut examples

$ cat bands
Brian:Jones:1942:The Rolling Stones
George:Harrison:1943:The Beatles
John:Lennon:1940:The Beatles
Keith:Richards:1943:The Rolling Stones
Mick:Jagger:1943:The Rolling Stones
Paul:McCartney:1942:The Beatles
Ringo:Starr:1940:The Beatles
Ron:Wood:1947:The Rolling Stones


Pull out 2nd & 4th columns

$ cat bands | cut -d: -f2,4
Jones:The Rolling Stones
Harrison:The Beatles
Lennon:The Beatles
Richards:The Rolling Stones
Jagger:The Rolling Stones
McCartney:The Beatles
Starr:The Beatles
Wood:The Rolling Stones


Extract the first 15 characters:

$ cat bands | cut -c1-15
Brian:Jones:194
George:Harrison
John:Lennon:194
Keith:Richards:
Mick:Jagger:194
Paul:McCartney:
Ringo:Starr:194
Ron:Wood:1947:T