Bash: How to Remove Specific Columns from a File

Often you may want to use Bash to remove specific columns from a file.

You can use the following syntax with cut to do so:

cat player_stats.txt | tr -s ' ' | cut -d ' ' --complement -f2

This particular example will remove column 2 from the text file named player_stats.txt.

You can also specify multiple column numbers to remove from the file:

cat player_stats.txt | tr -s ' ' | cut -d ' ' --complement -f2,4

This particular example will remove columns 2 and 4 from the text file named player_stats.txt.

Here is how this syntax works:

We use cat to display all lines in the file
We use tr -s ‘ ‘ to convert any repeated spaces into a single space
We use cut -d ‘ ‘ –complement to print all columns except specific columns

By using this syntax, we are able to remove specific columns from a file.

The following example shows how to use this syntax in practice.

Example: Use Bash to Remove Specific Columns from a File

Suppose that we have a file named player_stats.txt that contains information about various basketball players.

We can use the cat command to view the contents of this file:

Suppose that we would like to remove column 2 (the “points” column) from the file.

We can use the following syntax to do so:

cat player_stats.txt | tr -s ' ' | cut -d ' ' --complement -f2

The following screenshot shows how to use this syntax in practice:

Bash remove column from file

Notice that column 2 has been deleted from the file.

We could also use the following syntax to delete both column 2 and 4 from the file:

cat player_stats.txt | tr -s ' ' | cut -d ' ' --complement -f2,4

The following screenshot shows how to use this syntax in practice:

Bash remove multiple columns from file

Notice that columns 2 and 4 have both been deleted from the file.