Re: [coreutils] cut feature request

[Henrikki Almusa]

> Laurent Lyaudet wrote:
> > it would be useful that cut handles negative numbers parameters for
> > columns and fields as "from the end" parameters.
> > ...
> > I think using awk or something similar is overkill for solving that problem.
>
> Why?  I think awk is the perfect tool for it.  It already handles the
> problem well.  It is standard.
>
> Awk:
>   $ echo one two three | awk '{print$NF}'
>   three
>
>   $ echo one two three | awk '{print$(NF-1)}'
>   two
>
> Perl:
>   $ echo one two three | perl -lane 'print $F[-1]'
>   three
>
> If cut included all of the features of awk (or perl) then cut would
> also be overkill for the problem too, right?  Except then there
> wouldn't be a way to avoid the bloat by using the small and light
> weight cut, because cut wouldn't be small and light weight anymore,
> right?

I'd like to add my voice to adding this feature as well. I have a table 
from which I want to retrieve 3rd and 2nd last columns. I can do this 
with perl

cat foo.csv | perl -lane 'print join("\t",@F[$#F-2 .. $#F-1])' > bar.csv

I think it would be much nicer to be able to use cut in here.

cat foo.csv | cut -f-2,-3 > bar.csv

Nobody is saying that all the functions of perl (or awk) should be in 
cut, but ability to start from end of line instead of start would be 
useful. Alternative to -N (as that can be mixed to other options or 
valid syntax) might be

cat foo.csv | cut --start-end -f2,3 > bar.csv

Thanks,
Ps. please CC me as I'm not on coreutils list.
--
Henrikki Almusa