Sub-string of a string

[Displaying first five char here stringh is vikassharma]
[root@vikas java]# echo vikassharma | awk '{print substr($0,1,5)}'
vikas
[root@vikas java]# echo vikassharma | cut -c1-5
vikas
[root@vikas java]# printf "%.5s\n" "vikassharma"
vikas
[root@vikas java]# echo vikassharma | sed 's/\(.\{5\}\).*/\1/'
vikas
[root@vikas java]# var=vikassharma
[root@vikas java]# printf "%.5s\n" "$var"
vikas
[root@vikas java]# echo "${var%${var#?????}}"
vikas
[root@vikas java]#

[root@vikas java]# echo vikassharma | cut -c6-
sharma
[root@vikas java]# echo vikassharma | awk '{print substr($0,6)}'
sharma
[root@vikas java]# var=vikassharma
[root@vikas java]# echo ${var:5}
sharma
[root@vikas java]# echo "${var#?????}"
sharma