example using cut and sed

#!/bin/bash  
# short script showing cut and sed,  cut using FIELDS  
# cut fields 1 and 5   1=root  and 5=0
# root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
#  1:2:3:4:5:6:7
# delimiter ":"
#################################################
echo =========================================
date
echo =========================================
echo === user name - GECOS info ==============
cut -f 1,5 -d: /etc/passwd | sed -e 's/:/ - /'
echo =========================================
#################################################
output:
=========================================
Sun Dec  1 11:04:01 PST 2013
=========================================
=== user name - GECOS info ==============
root - root
bin - bin
sys - sys
man - man
lp - lp
...
=========================================
man cut

CUT(1)			User Commands			CUT(1)
NAME cut - remove sections from each line of files
SYNOPSIS cut OPTION... [FILE]...
DESCRIPTION
       Print selected parts of lines from each FILE to standard output.
       Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
       -b, --bytes=LIST
	      select only these bytes
       -c, --characters=LIST
	      select only these characters
       -d, --delimiter=DELIM
	      use DELIM instead of TAB for field delimiter
       -f, --fields=LIST
	      select only these fields;  also print any line that contains no 
	      delimiter character, unless the -s option is specified
       -n     (ignored)
       --complement
	      complement the set of selected bytes, characters or fields
       -s, --only-delimited
	      do not print lines not containing delimiters
       --output-delimiter=STRING
	      use STRING as the output delimiter the default is to use the input delimiter
       --help display this help and exit
       --version
	      output version information and exit
       Use  one,  and  only one of -b, -c or -f.  Each LIST is made up of one range, or many 
	ranges separated by commas.  Selected input is written in the same
       order that it is read, and is written exactly once.  Each range is one of:
       N      N'th byte, character or field, counted from 1
       N-     from N'th byte, character or field, to end of line
       N-M    from N'th to M'th (included) byte, character or field
       -M     from first to M'th (included) byte, character or field
       With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.
AUTHOR Written by David M. Ihnat, David MacKenzie, and Jim Meyering.
REPORTING BUGS
       Report cut bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
       GNU coreutils home page: 
       General help using GNU software: 
       Report cut translation bugs to 
COPYRIGHT
       Copyright © 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.	License GPLv3+: GNU GPL 
	version 3 or later .
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  
	There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
       The full documentation for cut is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the info 
	and cut programs are properly installed at your site, the command
	      info coreutils 'cut invocation'
       should give you access to the complete manual.
GNU coreutils 8.12.197-032bb     September 2011 	CUT(1)
=========================================

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