Can not seem to get expr substr to work

Question

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong ?

[ /jlr/sub/libexec/vmr-staging ] $ expr substr "onetwothree" 1 4
expr: syntax error

which OS du you use? substr is a non standard extention. The came be achieved with cut: echo "onetwothree" | cut -c 1-3 — kofemann, Apr 20 '13 at 19:39
I am developing in OS X, Production is CentOS, cut worked! Please post it as an answer and I will check it off =] — Jeffrey L. Roberts, Apr 20 '13 at 20:37

kofemann · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-25T14:51:44.180

2

The substr operation is a non standard extension and not supported on all OSes (probably linux only). The same be achieved with cut:

echo "onetwothree" | cut -c 1-3

edited Nov 25 '15 at 14:51

answered Apr 21 '13 at 07:02

kofemann

1 Answers1