Return zero when cut command doesn't return any value

Question

I have a scenario where

extract_content='60^123'

extract_count=$(echo $extract_content | cut -d^ -f1)

Then

extract_count='60' is what I achieve

Now sometimes

extract_content=?

Then I want

extract_count='0'

How can I achieve that using cut command

Answer 1

Don't use cut at all.

extract_content='60^123'

extract_count=0
[[ $extract_content =~ ([[:digit:]]+)\^ ]] && extract_count=${BASH_REMATCH[1]}

or

[[ $extract_content =~ ([[:digit:]]+)\^ ]]
extract_count=${BASH_REMATCH[1]:-0}

or even

extract_count=${extract_content%%^*}
extract_count=${extract_count:-0}