How to obtain the first letter in a Bash variable?

Question

I have a Bash variable, $word, which is sometimes a word or sentence, e.g.:

word=\"tiger\"

Or:

word=\"This is          


        

Answer 1

With cut :

word='tiger'
echo "${word}" | cut -c 1

Answer 2

Using bash 4:

x="test"
read -N 1 var <<< "${x}"
echo "${var}"

Answer 3

initial="$(echo $word | head -c 1)"

Every time you say "first" in your problem description, head is a likely solution.

Answer 4

word=something
first=${word::1}

Answer 5

A portable way to do it is to use parameter expansion (which is a POSIX feature):

$ word='tiger'
$ echo "${word%"${word#?}"}"
t

Answer 6

word="tiger"
firstletter=${word:0:1}