UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello,

I have a shell script containing a command string in the following format:

command1 | command2 | cut -c9-16

The output from this is a record number (using characters 9-16 of the original output string) e.g. ORD-1234
I wish to save this value to a variable for use in later commands within the same script.

If I run the commands without defining the variable it runs OK and returns the correct number to the screen.
I tried doing var1=`command1 | command2 | cut -c9-16`
but I kept getting some syntax errors (probably due to the fact that command 1 does an echo of a long string of characters containing lots of ^ as field delimiters)

Please can anyone suggest the best way to do this?

Many thanks

Code:

var1=$(command1 | command2 | cut -c9-16)

I get this error message:
syntax error at line 4: `var1=' unexpected

What is the output from that line you are looking to capture? Is it just a number, a string of text, are there carriage return/line feeds?

Can you provide a section of the script (this is at line 4) and the actual line you are typing.

The output I am trying to capture is in the format "ORD-1234" where the numbers will depends on the record number. it will be 4 digits after the ORD-
There shouldn't be a carriage return.

the command on line 4 that works at present is:
echo "string" | dbserver -h -s | cut -c9-16

where dbserver is a program-specific utility to export data from a specialised database program we have running on the server.
The "string" contains data/commands in a specific coded format that the dbserver program can execute, and this exports another string. the Cut command then outputs characters 9-16 in the format shown above.
This runs OK until I try to assign the output to a variable.