Substrings a variable

var='123456789'; echo ${var:<start_pos>:<offset>}
substrings a variable starting at position. If no offset given prints rest of the line
Sample Output 
~$ var='123456789'; echo ${var:4}
56789

~$ var='123456789'; echo ${var:4:2}
56

12
By: totti
2011-09-14 20:05:17
echo variable substring
2
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What Others Think

Very useful. You can further cut the substring down without going all the way to the end. A third value allows you to specify the length of the desired substring. var='123456789'; echo ${var:4:2} 56
costa24 · 475 weeks and 2 days ago
Works in bash & zsh Does not work in /bin/sh nor /bin/dash
Mozai · 475 weeks and 1 day ago

What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

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