How can I get the middle value of a shell command in bash script

Question

I am writing a bash shell script. In there, I execute a command and save the output to a variable. The value is like this:

0x34f0020d4         4 0x434346000 test_string

How can I parse and save the value of the 3rd string (ie 0x434346000), assume the value is separated by space or tab?

Answer 1

Put your command which gives the above output in this fashion:

x=($(your command))
$ echo ${x[2]}
0x434346000

The output of the command is being stored in an array "x", and hence the index 2 of the array contains the 3rd element.

Answer 2

Use the shell read command:

read first second third rest <<< "$line"
echo $third

Answer 3

Here's one way using awk :

var=$(echo "$string" | awk '{ print $3 }')

Test:

echo "$var"

Results:

0x434346000

Answer 4

You can also use the cut command. echo "axbxc" | cut -f 2 -d "x" gives b

Answer 5

Use an array to index values:

arr=("0x34f0020d4         4 0x434346000 test_string")
echo "${arr[2]}"