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87

18

I have a string like that:

|abcdefg|

And I want to get a new string called in someway (like string2) with the original string without the two | characters at the start and at the end of it so that I will have this:

abcdefg

Is that possible in bash?

bash command-line scripts

share|improve this question

edited 16 mins ago

Guy Avraham

1156

asked Dec 23 '11 at 14:29

Matteo PagliazziMatteo Pagliazzi

1,28251733

add a comment | 

87

18

I have a string like that:

|abcdefg|

And I want to get a new string called in someway (like string2) with the original string without the two | characters at the start and at the end of it so that I will have this:

abcdefg

Is that possible in bash?

bash command-line scripts

share|improve this question

edited 16 mins ago

Guy Avraham

1156

asked Dec 23 '11 at 14:29

Matteo PagliazziMatteo Pagliazzi

1,28251733

add a comment | 

I have a string like that:

|abcdefg|

And I want to get a new string called in someway (like string2) with the original string without the two | characters at the start and at the end of it so that I will have this:

abcdefg

Is that possible in bash?

bash command-line scripts

share|improve this question

edited 16 mins ago

Guy Avraham

1156

asked Dec 23 '11 at 14:29

Matteo PagliazziMatteo Pagliazzi

1,28251733

|abcdefg|

abcdefg

share|improve this question

edited 16 mins ago

Guy Avraham

1156

asked Dec 23 '11 at 14:29

Matteo PagliazziMatteo Pagliazzi

1,28251733

share|improve this question

edited 16 mins ago

Guy Avraham

1156

asked Dec 23 '11 at 14:29

Matteo PagliazziMatteo Pagliazzi

1,28251733

edited 16 mins ago

Guy Avraham

1156

edited 16 mins ago

Guy Avraham

1156

asked Dec 23 '11 at 14:29

Matteo PagliazziMatteo Pagliazzi

1,28251733

asked Dec 23 '11 at 14:29

Matteo PagliazziMatteo Pagliazzi

1,28251733

8 Answers
8

active

oldest

votes

111

You can do

string="|abcdefg|"
string2=$string#"
string2=$"
echo $string2

Or if your string length is constant, you can do

string="|abcdefg|"
string2=$string:1:7
echo $string2

Also, this should work

echo "|abcdefg|" | cut -d "|" -f 2

Also this

echo "|abcdefg|" | sed 's/^|(.*)|$/1/'

share|improve this answer

edited Dec 23 '11 at 18:36

answered Dec 23 '11 at 14:49

Kris HarperKris Harper

9,689114771

• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  and also awk -F| ' print $2 ' <<<"|string|"
  
  – enzotib
  Dec 23 '11 at 17:45
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @enzotib You always have cool awk solutions. I need to learn awk.
  
  – Kris Harper
  Dec 23 '11 at 18:36
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  and also IFS='|' read string2 <<< $string :)
  
  – arrange
  Dec 23 '11 at 20:38
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  9
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  and also, in bash 4.2 and newer, "$string:1:-1"
  
  – geirha
  Jul 5 '12 at 12:52
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Read under the "parameter expansion" section in man bash.
  
  – Nemo
  Sep 5 '12 at 20:44
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

58

Here's a solution that is independent of the length of the string (bash):

string="|abcdefg|"
echo "$string:1:$#string-2"

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 5 '12 at 12:44

Eliah Kagan

82.7k22227369

answered Dec 24 '11 at 16:28

Samus_Samus_

77257

add a comment | 

23

Going off a few posts listed here it seems the simplest way to do it is:

string="|abcdefg|"
echo $string:1:-1

edit: works on ubuntu with bash 4.2; does not work on centOS with bash 4.1

share|improve this answer

edited Oct 16 '12 at 16:32

answered Sep 5 '12 at 20:37

jlunavtgradjlunavtgrad

33924

add a comment | 

15

Another way is to use head & tail commands:

$ echo -n "|abcdefg|" | tail -c +2 | head -c -2
abcdefg

share|improve this answer

edited Jan 11 at 21:26

agabrys

1034

answered Nov 26 '13 at 16:16

ZaviorZavior

25124

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I had a string of [something something] with a goal to cut brackets, so echo "[something something]" | tail -c +2 | head -c -2 worked out. Thanks for a tip!
  
  – Ain Tohvri
  Dec 13 '15 at 15:36
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

10

And another one:

string="|abcdefg|"
echo "$string//"

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 18 '12 at 15:06

answered Jun 9 '12 at 1:03

Steven PennySteven Penny

1

add a comment | 

8

You can also use sed to remove the | not just referencing the symbol itself but using positional references as in:

$ echo "|abcdefg|" | sed 's:^.(.*).$:1:'
abcdefg

Where ':' are the delimiters (you can replace them with / or any character not in the query, any sign following the s will do it) Here ^ (caret) means at the beginning of the input string and $ (dollar) means at the end. The . (point) that it's after the caret and the one that it's before the dollar sign represents a single character. So in other words we are deleting the first and last characters.
Take in mind this will delete any characters even if | it's not present in the string.

EX:

$ echo "abcdefg" | sed 's:^.(.*).$:1:'
bcdef

share|improve this answer

answered Feb 8 '12 at 1:44

MetafanielMetafaniel

1893

add a comment | 

2

shell function

A bit more verbose approach, but works on any sort of first and last character, doesn't have to be the same. Basic idea is that we are taking a variable, reading it character by character, and appending only those
we want to a new variable

Here's that whole idea formatted into a nice function

crop_string_ends() 

And here is that same function in action:

$> crop_string_ends "|abcdefg|" 
abcdefg
$> crop_string_ends "HelloWorld" 
elloWorl

Python

>>> mystring="|abcdefg|"
>>> print(mystring[1:-1])
abcdefg

or on command line:

$ python -c 'import sys;print sys.stdin.read()[1:-2]' <<< "|abcdefg|" 
abcdefg

AWK

$ echo "|abcdefg|" | awk 'print substr($0,2,length($0)-2)' 
abcdefg

Ruby

$ ruby -ne 'print $_.split("|")[1]' <<< "|abcdefg|" 
abcdefg

share|improve this answer

edited Dec 24 '16 at 21:14

answered Apr 6 '16 at 13:58

Sergiy KolodyazhnyySergiy Kolodyazhnyy

74.3k9155324

add a comment | 

1

Small and universal solution:

expr "|abcdef|" : '.(.*).'

Special in this case and allowing that the '|' character may be there or not:

expr "|abcdef" : '|*([^|]*)|*'

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 8 '17 at 23:37

answered Jul 8 '17 at 23:29

Tosi DoTosi Do

112

add a comment | 

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111

You can do

string="|abcdefg|"
string2=$string#"
string2=$"
echo $string2

Or if your string length is constant, you can do

string="|abcdefg|"
string2=$string:1:7
echo $string2

Also, this should work

echo "|abcdefg|" | cut -d "|" -f 2

Also this

echo "|abcdefg|" | sed 's/^|(.*)|$/1/'

share|improve this answer

edited Dec 23 '11 at 18:36

answered Dec 23 '11 at 14:49

Kris HarperKris Harper

9,689114771

• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  and also awk -F| ' print $2 ' <<<"|string|"
  
  – enzotib
  Dec 23 '11 at 17:45
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @enzotib You always have cool awk solutions. I need to learn awk.
  
  – Kris Harper
  Dec 23 '11 at 18:36
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  and also IFS='|' read string2 <<< $string :)
  
  – arrange
  Dec 23 '11 at 20:38
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  9
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  and also, in bash 4.2 and newer, "$string:1:-1"
  
  – geirha
  Jul 5 '12 at 12:52
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Read under the "parameter expansion" section in man bash.
  
  – Nemo
  Sep 5 '12 at 20:44
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

111

You can do

string="|abcdefg|"
string2=$string#"
string2=$"
echo $string2

Or if your string length is constant, you can do

string="|abcdefg|"
string2=$string:1:7
echo $string2

Also, this should work

echo "|abcdefg|" | cut -d "|" -f 2

Also this

echo "|abcdefg|" | sed 's/^|(.*)|$/1/'

share|improve this answer

edited Dec 23 '11 at 18:36

answered Dec 23 '11 at 14:49

Kris HarperKris Harper

9,689114771

• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  and also awk -F| ' print $2 ' <<<"|string|"
  
  – enzotib
  Dec 23 '11 at 17:45
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @enzotib You always have cool awk solutions. I need to learn awk.
  
  – Kris Harper
  Dec 23 '11 at 18:36
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  and also IFS='|' read string2 <<< $string :)
  
  – arrange
  Dec 23 '11 at 20:38
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  9
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  and also, in bash 4.2 and newer, "$string:1:-1"
  
  – geirha
  Jul 5 '12 at 12:52
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Read under the "parameter expansion" section in man bash.
  
  – Nemo
  Sep 5 '12 at 20:44
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

You can do

string="|abcdefg|"
string2=$string#"
string2=$"
echo $string2

Or if your string length is constant, you can do

string="|abcdefg|"
string2=$string:1:7
echo $string2

Also, this should work

echo "|abcdefg|" | cut -d "|" -f 2

Also this

echo "|abcdefg|" | sed 's/^|(.*)|$/1/'

share|improve this answer

edited Dec 23 '11 at 18:36

answered Dec 23 '11 at 14:49

Kris HarperKris Harper

9,689114771

string="|abcdefg|"
string2=$string#"
string2=$"
echo $string2

string="|abcdefg|"
string2=$string:1:7
echo $string2

echo "|abcdefg|" | cut -d "|" -f 2

echo "|abcdefg|" | sed 's/^|(.*)|$/1/'

share|improve this answer

edited Dec 23 '11 at 18:36

answered Dec 23 '11 at 14:49

Kris HarperKris Harper

9,689114771

answered Dec 23 '11 at 14:49

Kris HarperKris Harper

9,689114771

answered Dec 23 '11 at 14:49

Kris HarperKris Harper

9,689114771

58

Here's a solution that is independent of the length of the string (bash):

string="|abcdefg|"
echo "$string:1:$#string-2"

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 5 '12 at 12:44

Eliah Kagan

82.7k22227369

answered Dec 24 '11 at 16:28

Samus_Samus_

77257

add a comment | 

58

Here's a solution that is independent of the length of the string (bash):

string="|abcdefg|"
echo "$string:1:$#string-2"

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 5 '12 at 12:44

Eliah Kagan

82.7k22227369

answered Dec 24 '11 at 16:28

Samus_Samus_

77257

add a comment | 

Here's a solution that is independent of the length of the string (bash):

string="|abcdefg|"
echo "$string:1:$#string-2"

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 5 '12 at 12:44

Eliah Kagan

82.7k22227369

answered Dec 24 '11 at 16:28

Samus_Samus_

77257

string="|abcdefg|"
echo "$string:1:$#string-2"

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 5 '12 at 12:44

Eliah Kagan

82.7k22227369

answered Dec 24 '11 at 16:28

Samus_Samus_

77257

edited Jul 5 '12 at 12:44

Eliah Kagan

82.7k22227369

edited Jul 5 '12 at 12:44

Eliah Kagan

82.7k22227369

answered Dec 24 '11 at 16:28

Samus_Samus_

77257

answered Dec 24 '11 at 16:28

Samus_Samus_

77257

23

Going off a few posts listed here it seems the simplest way to do it is:

string="|abcdefg|"
echo $string:1:-1

edit: works on ubuntu with bash 4.2; does not work on centOS with bash 4.1

share|improve this answer

edited Oct 16 '12 at 16:32

answered Sep 5 '12 at 20:37

jlunavtgradjlunavtgrad

33924

add a comment | 

23

Going off a few posts listed here it seems the simplest way to do it is:

string="|abcdefg|"
echo $string:1:-1

edit: works on ubuntu with bash 4.2; does not work on centOS with bash 4.1

share|improve this answer

edited Oct 16 '12 at 16:32

answered Sep 5 '12 at 20:37

jlunavtgradjlunavtgrad

33924

add a comment | 

Going off a few posts listed here it seems the simplest way to do it is:

string="|abcdefg|"
echo $string:1:-1

edit: works on ubuntu with bash 4.2; does not work on centOS with bash 4.1

share|improve this answer

edited Oct 16 '12 at 16:32

answered Sep 5 '12 at 20:37

jlunavtgradjlunavtgrad

33924

string="|abcdefg|"
echo $string:1:-1

share|improve this answer

edited Oct 16 '12 at 16:32

answered Sep 5 '12 at 20:37

jlunavtgradjlunavtgrad

33924

answered Sep 5 '12 at 20:37

jlunavtgradjlunavtgrad

33924

answered Sep 5 '12 at 20:37

jlunavtgradjlunavtgrad

33924

15

Another way is to use head & tail commands:

$ echo -n "|abcdefg|" | tail -c +2 | head -c -2
abcdefg

share|improve this answer

edited Jan 11 at 21:26

agabrys

1034

answered Nov 26 '13 at 16:16

ZaviorZavior

25124

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I had a string of [something something] with a goal to cut brackets, so echo "[something something]" | tail -c +2 | head -c -2 worked out. Thanks for a tip!
  
  – Ain Tohvri
  Dec 13 '15 at 15:36
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

15

Another way is to use head & tail commands:

$ echo -n "|abcdefg|" | tail -c +2 | head -c -2
abcdefg

share|improve this answer

edited Jan 11 at 21:26

agabrys

1034

answered Nov 26 '13 at 16:16

ZaviorZavior

25124

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I had a string of [something something] with a goal to cut brackets, so echo "[something something]" | tail -c +2 | head -c -2 worked out. Thanks for a tip!
  
  – Ain Tohvri
  Dec 13 '15 at 15:36
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

Another way is to use head & tail commands:

$ echo -n "|abcdefg|" | tail -c +2 | head -c -2
abcdefg

share|improve this answer

edited Jan 11 at 21:26

agabrys

1034

answered Nov 26 '13 at 16:16

ZaviorZavior

25124

$ echo -n "|abcdefg|" | tail -c +2 | head -c -2
abcdefg

share|improve this answer

edited Jan 11 at 21:26

agabrys

1034

answered Nov 26 '13 at 16:16

ZaviorZavior

25124

edited Jan 11 at 21:26

agabrys

1034

edited Jan 11 at 21:26

agabrys

1034

answered Nov 26 '13 at 16:16

ZaviorZavior

25124

answered Nov 26 '13 at 16:16

ZaviorZavior

25124

10

And another one:

string="|abcdefg|"
echo "$string//"

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 18 '12 at 15:06

answered Jun 9 '12 at 1:03

Steven PennySteven Penny

1

add a comment | 

10

And another one:

string="|abcdefg|"
echo "$string//"

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 18 '12 at 15:06

answered Jun 9 '12 at 1:03

Steven PennySteven Penny

1

add a comment | 

And another one:

string="|abcdefg|"
echo "$string//"

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 18 '12 at 15:06

answered Jun 9 '12 at 1:03

Steven PennySteven Penny

1

string="|abcdefg|"
echo "$string//"

share|improve this answer

edited Jul 18 '12 at 15:06

answered Jun 9 '12 at 1:03

Steven PennySteven Penny

1

answered Jun 9 '12 at 1:03

Steven PennySteven Penny

1

answered Jun 9 '12 at 1:03

Steven PennySteven Penny

1

8

You can also use sed to remove the | not just referencing the symbol itself but using positional references as in:

$ echo "|abcdefg|" | sed 's:^.(.*).$:1:'
abcdefg

Where ':' are the delimiters (you can replace them with / or any character not in the query, any sign following the s will do it) Here ^ (caret) means at the beginning of the input string and $ (dollar) means at the end. The . (point) that it's after the caret and the one that it's before the dollar sign represents a single character. So in other words we are deleting the first and last characters.
Take in mind this will delete any characters even if | it's not present in the string.

EX:

$ echo "abcdefg" | sed 's:^.(.*).$:1:'
bcdef

share|improve this answer

answered Feb 8 '12 at 1:44

MetafanielMetafaniel

1893

add a comment | 

8

You can also use sed to remove the | not just referencing the symbol itself but using positional references as in:

$ echo "|abcdefg|" | sed 's:^.(.*).$:1:'
abcdefg

Where ':' are the delimiters (you can replace them with / or any character not in the query, any sign following the s will do it) Here ^ (caret) means at the beginning of the input string and $ (dollar) means at the end. The . (point) that it's after the caret and the one that it's before the dollar sign represents a single character. So in other words we are deleting the first and last characters.
Take in mind this will delete any characters even if | it's not present in the string.

EX:

$ echo "abcdefg" | sed 's:^.(.*).$:1:'
bcdef

share|improve this answer

answered Feb 8 '12 at 1:44

MetafanielMetafaniel

1893

add a comment | 

You can also use sed to remove the | not just referencing the symbol itself but using positional references as in:

$ echo "|abcdefg|" | sed 's:^.(.*).$:1:'
abcdefg

Where ':' are the delimiters (you can replace them with / or any character not in the query, any sign following the s will do it) Here ^ (caret) means at the beginning of the input string and $ (dollar) means at the end. The . (point) that it's after the caret and the one that it's before the dollar sign represents a single character. So in other words we are deleting the first and last characters.
Take in mind this will delete any characters even if | it's not present in the string.

EX:

$ echo "abcdefg" | sed 's:^.(.*).$:1:'
bcdef

share|improve this answer

answered Feb 8 '12 at 1:44

MetafanielMetafaniel

1893

$ echo "|abcdefg|" | sed 's:^.(.*).$:1:'
abcdefg

$ echo "abcdefg" | sed 's:^.(.*).$:1:'
bcdef

share|improve this answer

answered Feb 8 '12 at 1:44

MetafanielMetafaniel

1893

answered Feb 8 '12 at 1:44

MetafanielMetafaniel

1893

answered Feb 8 '12 at 1:44

MetafanielMetafaniel

1893

2

shell function

A bit more verbose approach, but works on any sort of first and last character, doesn't have to be the same. Basic idea is that we are taking a variable, reading it character by character, and appending only those
we want to a new variable

Here's that whole idea formatted into a nice function

crop_string_ends() 

And here is that same function in action:

$> crop_string_ends "|abcdefg|" 
abcdefg
$> crop_string_ends "HelloWorld" 
elloWorl

Python

>>> mystring="|abcdefg|"
>>> print(mystring[1:-1])
abcdefg

or on command line:

$ python -c 'import sys;print sys.stdin.read()[1:-2]' <<< "|abcdefg|" 
abcdefg

AWK

$ echo "|abcdefg|" | awk 'print substr($0,2,length($0)-2)' 
abcdefg

Ruby

$ ruby -ne 'print $_.split("|")[1]' <<< "|abcdefg|" 
abcdefg

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edited Dec 24 '16 at 21:14

answered Apr 6 '16 at 13:58

Sergiy KolodyazhnyySergiy Kolodyazhnyy

74.3k9155324

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2

shell function

A bit more verbose approach, but works on any sort of first and last character, doesn't have to be the same. Basic idea is that we are taking a variable, reading it character by character, and appending only those
we want to a new variable

Here's that whole idea formatted into a nice function

crop_string_ends() 

And here is that same function in action:

$> crop_string_ends "|abcdefg|" 
abcdefg
$> crop_string_ends "HelloWorld" 
elloWorl

Python

>>> mystring="|abcdefg|"
>>> print(mystring[1:-1])
abcdefg

or on command line:

$ python -c 'import sys;print sys.stdin.read()[1:-2]' <<< "|abcdefg|" 
abcdefg

AWK

$ echo "|abcdefg|" | awk 'print substr($0,2,length($0)-2)' 
abcdefg

Ruby

$ ruby -ne 'print $_.split("|")[1]' <<< "|abcdefg|" 
abcdefg

share|improve this answer

edited Dec 24 '16 at 21:14

answered Apr 6 '16 at 13:58

Sergiy KolodyazhnyySergiy Kolodyazhnyy

74.3k9155324

add a comment |