${var:1:1:=y}

[Ray Andrews <rayandrews@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

We can of course do this:

    variable=${var:=xy}

I'm wanting the naive expansion of that syntax to do this:

    variable=${var:1:1:=y}

... but it doesn't work. Can something like that be done?
At the moment I'm doing this:

    variable=${var:1:1}
    [ -n "$variable" ] || variable=y

... which is perfectly fine, but the above pseudosyntax would be elegant 
if it could be made workable.


And I found something that puzzles me:


   test ()
   {
      echo $1
      echo ${1:0:1}
      /bin/echo ${1:0:1}
      echo ${1:1:1}
      echo ${1:0:1}${1:1:1}
      echo ${1:1:1}${1:0:1}
   }

   $ test -a

   -a
   [nothing]
   -
   a
   -a
   a-

... If I entered a valid switchofcourse I'd expect that to be eaten
but a solitary dash? Bug?  /bin/echo behaves as I'd expect.