edit string with sed

[lawrenzo_1]

Hi all,

I'm trying to work out how to use sed to keep the 5th and 6th Characters from the below string - can someone explain how I can do this?

inndot1

I want to keep "ot"

Thanks

Chris

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi Chris:

# X="inndot1"
# echo ${X}|sed -e 's/....\(..\).*/\1/'
ot

Regards!

...JRF...

[Mel Burslan]

I am not sure why you are hung on using sed for this job. sed is used more for editing, replacing large files or doing more complex tasks.

If your heart is not set on using sed, why not use cut as in

echo mystring | cut -c 5-6

[Dennis Handly]

You could also use expr(1):
expr substr "$X" 5 2

[lawrenzo_1]

all options are good for me - thanks all.