#!/bin/bash

var1=abcd-1234-defg
echo "var1 = $var1"

t=${var1#*-*}
echo "var1 (with everything, up to and including first - stripped out) = $t"
#  t=${var1#*-}  works just the same,
#+ since # matches the shortest string,
#+ and * matches everything preceding, including an empty string.
# (Thanks, Stephane Chazelas, for pointing this out.)

t=${var1##*-*}
echo "If var1 contains a \"-\", returns empty string...   var1 = $t"


t=${var1%*-*}
echo "var1 (with everything from the last - on stripped out) = $t"

echo

# -------------------------------------------
path_name=/home/bozo/ideas/thoughts.for.today
# -------------------------------------------
echo "path_name = $path_name"
t=${path_name##/*/}
echo "path_name, stripped of prefixes = $t"
# Same effect as   t=`basename $path_name` in this particular case.
#  t=${path_name%/}; t=${t##*/}   is a more general solution,
#+ but still fails sometimes.
#  If $path_name ends with a newline, then `basename $path_name` will not work,
#+ but the above expression will.
# (Thanks, S.C.)

t=${path_name%/*.*}
# Same effect as   t=`dirname $path_name`
echo "path_name, stripped of suffixes = $t"
# These will fail in some cases, such as "../", "/foo////", # "foo/", "/".
#  Removing suffixes, especially when the basename has no suffix,
#+ but the dirname does, also complicates matters.
# (Thanks, S.C.)

echo

t=${path_name:11}
echo "$path_name, with first 11 chars stripped off = $t"
t=${path_name:11:5}
echo "$path_name, with first 11 chars stripped off, length 5 = $t"

echo

t=${path_name/bozo/clown}
echo "$path_name with \"bozo\" replaced  by \"clown\" = $t"
t=${path_name/today/}
echo "$path_name with \"today\" deleted = $t"
t=${path_name//o/O}
echo "$path_name with all o's capitalized = $t"
t=${path_name//o/}
echo "$path_name with all o's deleted = $t"

exit 0