How to remove last n characters from a string in Bash?

Question

I have a variable var in a Bash script holding a string, like:

echo $var
\"some string.rtf\"

I want to remove the last 4 chara

Answer 1

You could use sed,

sed 's/.\{4\}$//' <<< "$var"

EXample:

$ var="some string.rtf"
$ var1=$(sed 's/.\{4\}$//' <<< "$var")
$ echo $var1
some string