How to paste columns from separate files using bash?

I wanted to extend jaypal's solution as I've ran into a need to edit files prior to merging the columns.

$cat date1.csv
 Bob,2013-06-03T17:18:07
 James,2013-06-03T17:18:07
 Kevin,2013-06-03T17:18:07

$cat date2.csv
 2012-12-02T18:30:31
 2012-12-02T18:28:37
 2013-06-01T12:16:05

Merging column 1 from date1.csv with column 1 from date2.csv can be accomplished as follows:

$pr -mts, <(cut -d, -f1 date1.csv) date2.csv
 Bob,2012-12-02T18:30:31
 James,2012-12-02T18:28:37
 Kevin,2013-06-01T12:16:05

You can apply further edits with a pipe if desired:

$pr -mts, <(cut -d, -f1 date1.csv | sort) date2.csv

Anyway, this has been handy for me and just wanted pass along the knowledge. Hope it helps someone.

Another way of doing it is with pr

pr -mts, file1 file2

Test:

[jaypal:~/Temp] cat file1
Bob,2013-06-03T17:18:07
James,2013-06-03T17:18:07
Kevin,2013-06-03T17:18:07

[jaypal:~/Temp] cat file2
2012-12-02T18:30:31
2012-12-02T18:28:37
2013-06-01T12:16:05

[jaypal:~/Temp] pr -mts, file1 file2
Bob,2013-06-03T17:18:07,2012-12-02T18:30:31
James,2013-06-03T17:18:07,2012-12-02T18:28:37
Kevin,2013-06-03T17:18:07,2013-06-01T12:16:05

You were on track with paste(1):

$ paste -d , date1.csv date2.csv 
Bob,2013-06-03T17:18:07,2012-12-02T18:30:31
James,2013-06-03T17:18:07,2012-12-02T18:28:37
Kevin,2013-06-03T17:18:07,2013-06-01T12:16:05

It's a bit unclear from your question if there are leading spaces on those lines. If you want to get rid of that in the final output, you can use cut(1) to snip it off before pasting:

 $ cut -c 2- date2.csv | paste -d , date1.csv -
  Bob,2013-06-03T17:18:07,2012-12-02T18:30:31
  James,2013-06-03T17:18:07,2012-12-02T18:28:37
  Kevin,2013-06-03T17:18:07,2013-06-01T12:16:05