Get the first n chars for each line of a file

cat file | colrm n

File’s contents:

8765 I like eating pie
8956 Sometimes I think I'm a robot
8796 I wonder what being a cat is like
4567 Time for food
4523 Pew Pew pew Space pope8765 I like eating pie

cat file | colrm 4

Output:

876
895
879
456
452

27 Jun 2011 | Tags ( bash cat Linux )