*removes within strings *remove first character x in string

• VAL=${VAL/x/}

*remove last character x in string

• VAL=${VAL/x/}

*remove first n characters

• VAL=${VAL:n}

* remove last n characters

• VAL=${VAL::-n}

*extract characters from string *extract characters from position n to m

• VAL=${VAL:n:m}