How to use double or single brackets, parentheses, curly braces

Question

I am confused by the usage of brackets, parentheses, curly braces in Bash, as well as the difference between their double or single forms. Is there a clear explanation?

Answer 1

I just wanted to add these from TLDP:

~:$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash

~:$ echo ${#SHELL}
9

~:$ ARRAY=(one two three)

~:$ echo ${#ARRAY}
3

~:$ echo ${TEST:-test}
test

~:$ echo $TEST


~:$ export TEST=a_string

~:$ echo ${TEST:-test}
a_string

~:$ echo ${TEST2:-$TEST}
a_string

~:$ echo $TEST2


~:$ echo ${TEST2:=$TEST}
a_string

~:$ echo $TEST2
a_string

~:$ export STRING="thisisaverylongname"

~:$ echo ${STRING:4}
isaverylongname

~:$ echo ${STRING:6:5}
avery

~:$ echo ${ARRAY[*]}
one two one three one four

~:$ echo ${ARRAY[*]#one}
two three four

~:$ echo ${ARRAY[*]#t}
one wo one hree one four

~:$ echo ${ARRAY[*]#t*}
one wo one hree one four

~:$ echo ${ARRAY[*]##t*}
one one one four

~:$ echo $STRING
thisisaverylongname

~:$ echo ${STRING%name}
thisisaverylong

~:$ echo ${STRING/name/string}
thisisaverylongstring