[bash] Trying to retrieve first 5 characters from string in bash error?

I'm trying to retrieve the first 5 characters from a string and but keep getting a Bad substitution error for the string manipulation line, I have the following lines in my teststring.sh script:

TESTSTRINGONE="MOTEST"

NEWTESTSTRING=${TESTSTRINGONE:0:5}
echo ${NEWTESTSTRING}

I have went over the syntax many times and cant see what im doing wrong

Thanks

Works in most shells

TESTSTRINGONE="MOTEST"
NEWTESTSTRING=${TESTSTRINGONE%"${TESTSTRINGONE#?????}"}
echo ${NEWTESTSTRING}
# MOTES

The original syntax will work with BASH but not with DASH. On debian systems you might think you are using bash, but maybe dash instead. If /bin/dash/exist then try temporarily renaming dash to something like no.dash, and then create soft a link, aka ln -s /bin/bash /bin/dash and see if that fixes the problem.

You can try sed if you like -

[jaypal:~/Temp] TESTSTRINGONE="MOTEST"
[jaypal:~/Temp] sed 's/\(.\{5\}\).*/\1/' <<< "$TESTSTRINGONE"
MOTES

That parameter expansion should work (what version of bash do you have?)

Here's another approach:

read -n 5 NEWTESTSTRING <<< "$TESTSTRINGONE"

echo $TESTSTRINGONE|awk '{print substr($0,0,5)}'

You were so close! Here is the easiest solution: NEWTESTSTRING=$(echo ${TESTSTRINGONE::5})

So for your example:

$ TESTSTRINGONE="MOTEST"
$ NEWTESTSTRING=$(echo ${TESTSTRINGONE::5})
$ echo $NEWTESTSTRING
MOTES

echo 'mystring' |cut -c1-5 is an alternative solution to ur problem.

more on unix cut program

This might work for you:

 printf "%.5s" $TESTSTRINGONE

Substrings with ${variablename:0:5} are a bash feature, not available in basic shells. Are you sure you're running this under bash? Check the shebang line (at the beginning of the script), and make sure it's #!/bin/bash, not #!/bin/sh. And make sure you don't run it with the sh command (i.e. sh scriptname), since that overrides the shebang.

Depending on your shell, you may be able to use the following syntax:

expr substr $string $position $length

So for your example:

TESTSTRINGONE="MOTEST"
echo `expr substr ${TESTSTRINGONE} 0 5`

Alternatively,

echo 'MOTEST' | cut -c1-5

or

echo 'MOTEST' | awk '{print substr($0,0,5)}'

Works here:

$ TESTSTRINGONE="MOTEST"
$ NEWTESTSTRING=${TESTSTRINGONE:0:5}
$ echo ${NEWTESTSTRING}
MOTES

What shell are you using?