sel

sel is an inline field selection and table transformation tool that aims to replace cut.

Installation

Just copy the right executable from the bin directory into your path.

Usage

The sel tool takes each line from stdin, splits it into fields, and prints back a selection of those fields.

The simplest use is selecting a single field from a line of columns:

$ echo a b c d e | sel 3
c

Field indices begin at 1.

Selecting multiple fields

You can select multiple fields by passing a list of selectors:

$ echo a b c d e | sel 3 5
c e

The selectors don't have to be in order. You can use sel to rearrange columns:

$ echo a b c d e | sel 4 1
d a

Selecting fields from the end

You can use negative indices to select fields counting from the end:

$ echo a b c d e | sel -1 -3
e c

Selecting field range

sel understands field ranges, in python style:

$ echo "a b c d e" | sel 2:4
b c d

$ echo "a b c d e" | sel 2:-2
b c d

This includes unbounded ranges:

$ echo "a b c d e" | sel 3:
c d e

$ echo "a b c d e" | sel :2
a b

$ echo "a b c d e" | sel :
a b c d e

Splitting fields using a custom separator

By default, sel splits the input on whitespace. It can also use a custom regular expression:

$ cat users.csv
1241,Bob
3192,MitM
3255,Alice

$ cat users.csv | sel -split=, 1
1241
3192
3255

$ echo 1a2b3c4d | sel -split=[a-z] 2:3
2 3

Joining fields using a custom string

By default, sel prints selected fields separated by a single space character. You can change this:

$ echo a b c | sel -join=- 2 3
b-c