shell get the last character of a string

I have wrote the following lines to obtain the last character of a string:

str=$1i=$((${#str}-1))echo ${str:$i:1}

It works for “abcd/”:

$ bash last_ch.sh abcd//

It does not work for “abcd*”:

$ bash last_ch.sh abcd*array.sh assign.sh date.sh dict.sh full_path.sh

It lists the files in the current folder.

That’s one of the reasons why you need to quote your variables:

echo "${str:$i:1}"

Otherwise, bash expands the variable & in this case does globbing before printing out. It is moreover better to quote the parameter to the script (in case you have a matching filename):

sh lash_ch.sh 'abcde*'

Also see the order of expansions in the bash reference manual. Variables are expanded before the filename expansion.