Trying to retrieve first 5 characters from string in bash error

Question

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

This might work for you    printf    5s   TESTSTRINGONE

User · Answer

That parameter expansion should work  what version of bash do you have    Here s another approach   read -n 5 NEWTESTSTRING  lt  lt  lt    TESTSTRINGONE

User · Answer

echo  TESTSTRINGONE awk   print substr  0 0 5

User · Answer

echo  mystring   cut -c1-5 is an alternative solution to ur problem   more on unix cut program

User · Answer

Works in most shells  TESTSTRINGONE  MOTEST  NEWTESTSTRING   TESTSTRINGONE    TESTSTRINGONE          echo   NEWTESTSTRING    MOTES

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

You can try sed if you like -   jaypal   Temp  TESTSTRINGONE  MOTEST   jaypal   Temp  sed  s      5        1    lt  lt  lt    TESTSTRINGONE  MOTES

User · Answer

Works here     TESTSTRINGONE  MOTEST    NEWTESTSTRING   TESTSTRINGONE 0 5    echo   NEWTESTSTRING  MOTES   What shell are you using

User · Answer

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

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

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