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From: cevert@airgun.wg.waii.com (C C Evert)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: Getting at the first char of a string in Bourne shell
Summary: Single strippers
Message-ID: <884@airgun.wg.waii.com>
Date: 1 Oct 90 20:39:55 GMT
References: <1308@ncrwat.Waterloo.NCR.COM>
Organization: Western Geophysical, Houston
Lines: 16

In article <1308@ncrwat.Waterloo.NCR.COM>, ken@images1.Waterloo.NCR.COM (Ken Braithwaite) writes:
> I am trying to peel off one at a time the letters from a variable
> in the Bourne shell, ie from Bourne get B and ourne.
> How can I do this?
> Thanks in advance.
> 

expr "$SHELL" : '\(.\).*' prints the first letter of SHELL
expr "$SHELL" : '.\(.*\)' prints all but the first letter of SHELL

You still need to check for SHELL being empty.
-- 
C C Evert 
Western Geophysical - A division of Western Atlas International,
A Litton/Dresser Company           DOMAIN addr: cevert@airgun.wg.waii.com
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