Output exactly x number of characters to variable using read in Bash

Asked Dec 07 '20 at 17:47

Active Dec 07 '20 at 17:47

Viewed 36 times

Does anyone know of an easier way to limit the output of an echo command to x number of characters within a bash script?

ie. Snippet:

echo "Enter string: "
read -N10 string
echo

To avoid exiting and continuing key press:

Enter string:
kkkkkkkkkk
$ kkkkkkkkkk

Basically, I want the output to cut off after 10 characters and the variable 'string' to hold those 10 characters so that I can use that string variable later on as opposed to the above scenario.

Any easier way to do this or something similar?

Many thanks.

asked Dec 07 '20 at 17:47

Data

Did you mean `echo "$string"`? – Barmar Dec 07 '20 at 17:49
Well I need the output to be a certain number of characters ie.12 and to have that read into a variable – Data Dec 07 '20 at 17:55
1

`echo "${string:0:$n}"` where `n` is the number of characters you want. – Barmar Dec 07 '20 at 18:05
How would I implement that to the Enter string prompt? `echo "Enter string: "` – Data Dec 07 '20 at 18:37
Or I should say once you entered a random string and then echoed out the set number of characters using the method you mentioned, how do you update the same string variable with the new character limit value? – Data Dec 07 '20 at 18:57
Oh got it to work thank you @Barmar – Data Dec 07 '20 at 19:09
FYI, you can specify the prompt as an option to `read`: `read -p "Enter string: " -r string` – Barmar Dec 07 '20 at 19:27
Thank you @Barmar – Data Dec 11 '20 at 19:51

Output exactly x number of characters to variable using read in Bash

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