#!/bin/bash
# substring-extraction.sh

String=23skidoo1
#      012345678    Bash
#      123456789    awk
# Note different string indexing system:
# Bash numbers first character of string as '0'.
# Awk  numbers first character of string as '1'.

echo ${String:2:4} # position 3 (0-1-2), 4 characters long
                                         # skid

# The awk equivalent of ${string:pos:length} is substr(string,pos,length).
echo | awk '
{ print substr("'"${String}"'",3,4)      # skid
}
'
#  Piping an empty "echo" to awk gives it dummy input,
#+ and thus makes it unnecessary to supply a filename.

exit 0