# Remove the first or last characters in a shell script

> Learn how to remove the first or last n characters from a variable in a shell script using cut, and the rev trick to trim characters off the end.

Author: [Flavio Copes](https://flaviocopes.com/about/) | Published: 2022-07-18 | Topics: [CLI](https://flaviocopes.com/tags/cli/) | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/shell-script-remove-first-last-characters-variable/

While working on a Bash / Fish script I had the need to remove the last n characters from a string and it took way longer to figure out than I wanted.

Here's the solution I found:

```sh
#!/bin/sh
original="my original string"
result=$(echo $original | cut -c10-) #cut first 10 chars
echo $result
```

To remove the last n characters:

```sh
#!/bin/sh
original="my original string"
result=$(echo $original | rev | cut -c10- | rev) #cut last 10 chars
echo $result
```