How to cut the last field from a shell string

Question

How to cut the last field in this shell string

LINE=\"/string/to/cut.txt\"

So that the string would look like this

LINE=\"/         


        

Answer 1

This will work in modern Bourne versions such as Dash, BusyBox ash, etc., as well as descendents such as Bash, Korn shell and Z shell.

LINE="/string/to/cut.txt"
LINE=${LINE%/*}

or to keep the final slash:

LINE=${LINE%/*}/