This is the second part of the Bash One-Liners Explained article series. In this part I'll show you how to do various string manipulations with bash. I'll use only the best bash practices, various bash idioms and tricks. I want to illustrate how to get various tasks done with just bash built-in commands and bash programming language constructs.

Read the full thing at http://www.catonmat.net/blog/bash-one-liners-explained-part-two/