remove last two characters from each line

Question

I've got a file containing:

Georgia
Unix
Google

The desired output is:

Georg
Un
Goog

Thank you. I know that, it's just a thing i needed for a script. I use bash alot at work since the software provided can't provide all the needs. — Sir Vic, Aug 16 '17 at 23:48

score 18 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 16 '17 at 23:45

18

sed 's/..$//' < input > output

answered Aug 16 '17 at 23:45

Jeff Schaller

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 17 '17 at 05:46

1

The shell Parameter Expansion and using Substring removal ${parameter%word}/Substring Expansion ${parameter:offset:length} syntax.

"${line%??}"    # strip the shortest suffix pattern match the word 
"${line::-2}"   # strip last 2 characters (`bash 4.2` and above)
"${line: : -2}" # in older you could add spaces between OR
"${line::${#line}-2}"

answered Aug 17 '17 at 05:46

αғsнιη

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`"${line: : -2}"` wouldn't work in older versions either. `${line:0:${#line}-2}` would and also work in `ksh93` (where that `${var:offset:length}` syntax comes from) and recent versions of `zsh`. See also `$line[1,-3]` in `zsh`. – Stéphane Chazelas Aug 17 '17 at 07:36

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 17 '17 at 05:56

0

Using grep and look-ahead option (PCRE):

grep -Po '.*(?=..$)'

answered Aug 17 '17 at 05:56

αғsнιη

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remove last two characters from each line

3 Answers3