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If you know it's going to be just two fields, you can skip the extra subprocesses like this, using :

var1=${STR%-*}
var2=${STR#*-}

What does this do? ${STR%-*} deletes the shortest substring of $STR that matches the pattern -* starting from the end of the string. ${STR#*-} does the same, but with the *- pattern and starting from the beginning of the string. They each have counterparts %% and ## which find the longest anchored pattern match. If anyone has a helpful mnemonic to remember which does which, let me know! I always have to try both to remember.

See the bash documentation for more information.

If you know it's going to be just two fields, you can skip the extra subprocesses. Like this:

STR="ABCDE-12345" 
var1=${STR%-*} # ABCDE
var2=${STR#*-} # 12345

Explanation:

• ${STR%-*} deletes the shortest substring of $STR that matches the pattern -* (deletes - and anything after it). It starts from the end of the string.
• ${STR#*-} deletes the shortest substring of $STR that matches the pattern *- (deletes - and anything before it). It starts from the beginning of the string.

They each have counterparts %% and ## which find the longest anchored pattern match. To memorize, use this mnemonic, shared by @DS:

"#" is to the left of "%" on a standard keyboard, so "#" removes a prefix (on the left), and "%" removes a suffix (on the right).

See the bash documentation for more information.

If you know it's going to be just two fields, you can skip the extra subprocesses like this:

var1=${STR%-*}
var2=${STR#*-}

What does this do? ${STR%-*} deletes the shortest substring of $STR that matches the pattern -* starting from the end of the string. ${STR#*-} does the same, but with the *- pattern and starting from the beginning of the string. They each have counterparts %% and ## which find the longest anchored pattern match. If anyone has a helpful mnemonic to remember which does which, let me know! I always have to try both to remember.

If you know it's going to be just two fields, you can skip the extra subprocesses like this, using :

var1=${STR%-*}
var2=${STR#*-}

What does this do? ${STR%-*} deletes the shortest substring of $STR that matches the pattern -* starting from the end of the string. ${STR#*-} does the same, but with the *- pattern and starting from the beginning of the string. They each have counterparts %% and ## which find the longest anchored pattern match. If anyone has a helpful mnemonic to remember which does which, let me know! I always have to try both to remember.

See the bash documentation for more information.

If you know it's going to be just two fields, you can skip the extra subprocesses like this:

var1=${STR%-*}
var2=${STR#*-}

If you know it's going to be just two fields, you can skip the extra subprocesses like this:

var1=${STR%-*}
var2=${STR#*-}

What does this do? ${STR%-*} deletes the shortest substring of $STR that matches the pattern -* starting from the end of the string. ${STR#*-} does the same, but with the *- pattern and starting from the beginning of the string. They each have counterparts %% and ## which find the longest anchored pattern match. If anyone has a helpful mnemonic to remember which does which, let me know! I always have to try both to remember.