What linux shell command returns a part of a string? [duplicate]
Solution 1:
If you are looking for a shell utility to do something like that, you can use the cut command.
To take your example, try:
echo "abcdefg" | cut -c3-5
which yields
cde
Where -cN-M tells the cut command to return columns N to M, inclusive.
Solution 2:
From the bash manpage:
${parameter:offset}
${parameter:offset:length}
Substring Expansion. Expands to up to length characters of
parameter starting at the character specified by offset.
[...]
Or, if you are not sure of having bash, consider using cut.