Question

I want to find a linux command that can return a part of the string. In most programming languages, it’s the substr() function. Does bash have any command that can be used for this purpose. I want to be able to do something like this… substr 'abcdefg' 2 3 – prints cde.

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Subsequent similar question:

• Extract substring in Bash

Answer 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.