Two powerful features of the Linux command line shell are redirection and pipes which allow the output (or even input) of a program to be sent to a file or another program. You may have already used this features without being aware of it. Whenever you have used the “>” sign in a command or “|” then you have used redirection or a pipe, respectively.

Full article here:
Understanding Pipes and Redirection For the Linux Command Line (Make Tech Easier)