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Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2015 21:16:54 -0800
From: Ray Andrews <rayandrews@eastlink.ca>
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Subject: Re: ${var:1:1:=y}
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On 02/03/2015 07:25 PM, Bart Schaefer wrote:
> You've forgotten that ${var=val} has the side-effect of assigning to
> "var" if it is not set.

No, it was just irrelevant there.
> I think what you mean is what Lawrence already
> demonstrated (again several messages ahead):
>
>      variable=${${var:1:1}:-y}

Ah, I thought it might be like that, one of those 'nested' things.
Nothing you can't do with those if you know how.
> However, you can do this with subscript syntax:
>
>      variable=${var[2]:=y}
>
> which either assigns to $variable the second character of $var, or
> assigns "y" to both $variable and to the second character of $var.
Even softer.
> You can also do ${var[2]::=z} to forcibly assign "z" to the second
> character of $var.

Excellent.


>
> (Actually the doc might not say exactly that due to a Yodl formatting
> error, but that's what it is supposed to say.  The part about a single
> `-' in a separate word is correct and is what matters here.)
Ok, all good.  Fact is, I'd not have a clue where I'd look to find that 
information.  Thanks both.
>