Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!umd5!brl-adm!adm!rbj@icst-cmr.arpa
From: rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Picking a character from a word
Message-ID: <13125@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: 26 Apr 88 21:28:42 GMT
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
Lines: 26


   From: "Richard A. O'Keefe" <ok@quintus.uucp>

   Unfortunately, "expr substr" is a BSD-ism which has yet to find its way
   into the SVID.

Or the manual entry.

Here is yes another solution. I assume your word has no spaces in
it, or else it would be many words.

set x=abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz	# input `word'
set y=(`echo $x | sed 's/./& /g'`)	# chg each char to a word
set z=$y[17]				# select char, 1-origin indexing
echo $z					# should produce `q'

   Oh the joys of macro processors; fun till it hurts.

Yeah, but it feels so good when you stop.

	(Root Boy) Jim Cottrell	<rbj@icst-cmr.arpa>
	National Bureau of Standards
	Flamer's Hotline: (301) 975-5688
	The opinions expressed are solely my own
	and do not reflect NBS policy or agreement
The PINK SOCKS were ORIGINALLY from 1952!!
 But they went to MARS around 1953!!