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up vote 1 down vote favorite

Am trying to get a substring from a string but am getting the error: ${curr_rec:3:4}: bad substitution

#!/bin/ksh

get_file_totals()
{

    if [ -e "$file_name" ]
    then
        IFS=''
        while read line
        do
        curr_rec=$line
        echo ${curr_rec:3:4}
        done < "$file_name"
    else

        echo "error"
    fi
}

file_name="$1"
get_file_totals
share|improve this question
    
It's working for me. How do you call the script? –  chaos May 27 at 9:36
    
FWIW I get this error if I (wrongly) call the script like sh myscript. I can't reproduce it otherwise. –  roaima May 27 at 10:06
1  
You may want to read Why is using a shell loop to process text considered bad practice?. You've fallen in almost every trap there. –  Stéphane Chazelas May 27 at 10:54

2 Answers 2

up vote 1 down vote accepted

It would be more efficient to rewrite this, thereby avoiding the issue in the first place:

#!/bin/ksh

get_file_totals()
{

    if [ -e "$file_name" ]
    then
        cut -c4-7 "$file_name"
    else
        echo "error"    # consider stderr by appending >&2
    fi
}

file_name="$1"
get_file_totals
share|improve this answer
up vote 3 down vote

You're invoking ksh. The kind of substitution you are wanting to do works only since ksh '93. Is there a chance you are using an older version? Run ksh and check for the existence of KSH_VERSION. If it doesn't exist or is before '93, it's too old.

share|improve this answer
    
That syntax is also available in zsh's ksh and mksh since version 30.1 (2007). –  Stéphane Chazelas May 27 at 10:58
    
(with mksh, you need the -U option for ${var:offset:length} to work with characters as opposed to bytes in UTF-8 locales). –  Stéphane Chazelas May 27 at 11:20

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