Counting the number of dots in a string

Question

How do I count the number of dots in a string in BASH? For example

VAR=\"s454-da4_sd.fs_84-df.f-sds.a_as_d.a-565sd.dasd\"

# Variable VAR contains 5 dots
         


        

Answer 1

Temporarily setting IFS, pure Bash, no sub-processes:

IFS=. VARTMP=(X${VAR}X) # avoid stripping dots
echo $(( ${#VARTMP[@]} - 1 ))

Output:

5