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How do I get the nth character from a string?

 
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# 1  
Old 06-22-2006
How do I get the nth character from a string?
How to I get the nth character from a string in shell script. For instance, I have a string London. I want to get, say the first character (L) from the string. How do I do this in unix shell?

Thankx
# 2  
Old 06-22-2006
To get d From London

Code:
echo "London" | head -c 4 | tail -c 1

You could also use the Bash specific construct. See this

Code:
$ echo $JAVA_HOME
/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2_07
$ echo ${JAVA_HOME:0:1}
/
$ echo ${JAVA_HOME:1:1}
u

Last edited by vino; 06-22-2006 at 07:45 AM..
# 3  
Old 06-22-2006
Or..
Code:
expr substr London 1 1

# 4  
Old 06-22-2006
Ksh93 has some extra string things, like:

Code:
$ x=London
$ print ${x:3:1}          ;# syntax is ${string:index:length}
n

cheers
# 5  
Old 06-22-2006
Quote:
Originally Posted by vino
To get d From London

Code:
echo "London" | head -c 4 | tail -c 1


Code:
echo "London" | head -c 4 | tail -c 2

 
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