Pasting sections of text files (paste command)

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Use the paste command to merge the lines of up to 12 files into one file.

See the following examples:

If you have a file named names that contains the following text:
```
rachel
jerry
mark
linda
scott
```
and another file named places that contains the following text:
```
New York
Austin
Chicago
Boca Raton
Seattle
```
and another file named dates that contains the following text:
```
February 5
March 13
June 21
July 16
November 4
```
To paste the text of the files names, places, and dates together, type the following:
```
paste names places dates > npd
```
This creates a file named npd that contains the data from the names file in one column, the places file in another, and the dates file in a third. The npd file now contains the following:
```
rachel          New York        February 5
jerry           Austin          March 13
mark            Chicago         June 21
linda           Boca Raton      July 16
scott           Seattle         November 4
```
A tab character separates the name, place, and date on each line. These columns do not align, because the tab stops are set at every eighth column.
To separate the columns with a character other than a tab, type the following:
```
paste -d"!@" names places dates > npd
```
This alternates ! and @ as the column separators. If the names, places, and dates files are the same as in example 1, then the npd file contains the following:
```
rachel!New York@February 5
jerry!Austin@March 13
mark!Chicago@June 21
linda!Boca Raton@July 16
scott!Seattle@November 4
```
To list the current directory in four columns, type the following:
```
ls | paste - - - -
```
Each hyphen (-) tells the paste command to create a column containing data read from the standard input. The first line is put in the first column, the second line in the second column, and so on.

See the paste command in the Commands Reference, Volume 4 for the complete syntax.