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Extracting string before first dash in a file name

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# 1  
Old 07-11-2011
Extracting string before first dash in a file name
Hi all,

Given a file name such as
Code:
EXAMPLE=lastname-02.30.71-firstname-town-other.tar.gz

How do I print everything before the first dash (i.e. lastname)

Note: I do not know exactly how many dashes or what information there will be in each file name so it is important that the code prints everything before the first dash and does not use the number of dashes anywhere.

Thanks!
# 2  
Old 07-11-2011
You can use parameter expansion: ${var%%-*}.

Regards,
Alister
This User Gave Thanks to alister For This Post:
bashnewbee
# 3  
Old 07-11-2011
Thanks, Alister. My problem was that I only had one % sign and therefore the output was everything before the last dash instead of everything before the first dash
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