paste

Merge corresponding or subsequent lines of files (POSIX)

Syntax:

paste [-d list] [-s] file...

Options:

-d list

Use one or more characters specified in list to separate corresponding lines in the output (default delimiter is tab). If list contains multiple characters, the characters are used circularly; i.e. when the list is exhausted, the first character from the list is reused. You can use the following special characters in list:

Character	Represents
\n	newline character
\t	tab character
\\	backslash character
\0	empty string (not a null character)

In parallel merging (no -s option), the lines from the last file always end with a newline character instead of the one specified in list.

-s

Merge the subsequent lines of each separate input file into a single line. When paste finishes merging all the lines in one file, it forces a new line and then merges the lines of the next file. A tab separates the merged lines unless you specify another character with option -d. Regardless of the list used with -d, the last character of the file is always a newline character.

file

The pathname of a text file, whose contents are used instead of the standard input. If a dash (-) is specified for one or more of the filenames, the standard input is used; the standard input is read one line at a time, round-robin, for each instance of a dash (-).

Description:

The paste utility reads input files, concatenates their corresponding lines, and writes the resulting lines to the standard output.

By default, paste treats each file as a column and places the columns side by side. This is known as "parallel merging." If -s is specified, however, paste combines the subsequent lines of each input file into a single line. This is known as "serial merging."

Output lines are separated by the tab character unless another delimiter is specified by option -d.

Examples:

List a directory in one column:

    ls -C | paste -d" " -

List a directory in four columns:

    ls | paste - - - -

Combine pairs of lines from myfile into single lines, separated by a tab:

    paste -s -d "\t\n" myfile

The following examples show how paste operates on two simple files, each containing four lines:

myfile contains the following:

    fred
    barney
    wilma
    dino

yourfile contains the following:

    george
    judy
    jane
    astro

Executing paste myfile yourfile results in:

    fred    george
    barney  judy
    wilma   jane
    dino    astro

Executing paste -s myfile yourfile results in:

    fred    barney  wilma    dino
    george  judy    jane     astro

Files:

The input files are text files.

Exit status:

0

Successful completion.

>0

An error occurred.

See also:

cat, cut, grep, join