Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!ctisbv!pim
From: pim@cti-software.nl (Pim Zandbergen)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: Getting at the first char of a string in Bourne shell
Message-ID: <1990Sep29.215559.25098@cti-software.nl>
Date: 29 Sep 90 21:55:59 GMT
References: <1308@ncrwat.Waterloo.NCR.COM> <9737@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <1990Sep29.193617.25752@iwarp.intel.com>
Organization: CTI Software BV, The Hague, The Netherlands
Lines: 15

How about 

string=`echo $string | cut -c1`

I don't think the Bourne shell can do this without executing
an external command.

In Korn shell you can use a hack like

string=${string%${string#?}}
-- 
Pim Zandbergen                          domain : pim@cti-software.nl
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