Get all characters of string except the last 2 in bash

Question

I would like to know how I can print the string I have but without having the last two characters in bash. for example:

str = "hello.c"

And then print only hello

Thank for answers.

Answer 1

The answer is to use bash-builtin string manipulation:

str="hello.c"
echo "${str%.c}"

Try it online!

To quote the documentation:

${parameter%word}
${parameter%%word}

The word is expanded to produce a pattern just as in filename expansion. If the pattern matches a trailing portion of the expanded value of parameter, then the result of the expansion is the value of parameter with the shortest matching pattern (the '%' case) or the longest matching pattern (the '%%' case) deleted. If parameter is '@' or '*', the pattern removal operation is applied to each positional parameter in turn, and the expansion is the resultant list. If parameter is an array variable subscripted with '@' or '*', the pattern removal operation is applied to each member of the array in turn, and the expansion is the resultant list.