colrm

Additional Notes

colrm removes character columns from each input line. It is useful for fixed-width text where you want to delete a column range.

It counts columns by character position, not CSV fields or whitespace-separated fields.

Syntax

colrm [start [end]]

Parameters

• start: First column to remove, starting at 1.
• end: Last column to remove. If omitted, removes through end of line.
• Standard input: Text to process.

Examples

printf 'abcdef\n' | colrm 3

Remove from column 3 to the end, producing ab.

printf 'abcdef\n' | colrm 3 4

Remove columns 3 through 4, producing abef.

cat fixed-width.txt | colrm 1 8

Remove the first eight columns from fixed-width text.

Practical Notes

• Use cut -c when you want to keep specific character ranges instead of removing them.
• Column counting can be confusing with tabs or wide Unicode characters.
• For delimited data, use cut -d, awk, or a structured parser.