It's sometimes easier when you're composing command lines: `cat foo | bar` is easier to transform into `cat foo | baz` (esp. when foo or bar are rather long).

It's sometimes easier when you're composing command lines: `cat foo | bar` is easier to transform into `cat foo | baz` (esp. when foo or bar are rather long). Also, piping doesn't mean that cat does all its work and only then will it be passed into wc, cat only acts as a rather tiny buffer.