Linux Pocket Guide, 2nd Edition

Name

paste — stdin  stdout  - file  -- opt  --help  --version

Synopsis

paste [options] [files]

The paste command is the opposite of cut: it treats several files as vertical columns and combines them on standard output:

$ cat letters
A
B
C
$ cat numbers
1
2
3
4
5
$ paste numbers letters
1  A
2  B
3  C
4
5
$ paste letters numbers
A  1
B  2
C  3
   4
   5

Useful options

-d delimiters	Use the given delimiters characters between columns; the default is a tab character. Provide a single character (-d:) to be used always, or a list of characters (-dxyz) to be applied in sequence on each line (the first delimiter is x, then y, then z, then x, then y, ...).
-s	Transpose the rows and columns of output: $ paste -s letters numbers A B C 1 2 3 4 5