Print ranges without its BEGIN and END patterns

Hi there,


I'm really new to using sed. While experimenting in order to print ranges without its BEGIN and END patterns I accidentially came across that given a string variable:


VAR=$'first\nsecond\nthird\nfourth\nfifth'


...and mangling it by...


NEWVAR="$(echo "$VAR" | sed -n '/second/,/fourth/{//!p}')"


...then...


echo "$NEWVAR" 


...expands to the string "third" seeming to successfully eliminate the BEGIN/ END patterns.


Unfortunately I didn't find this described anywhere in manuals nor the internet. Probably there's anyone out there who  can explain whether this is a bug or a feature...and how/why it works.




Best regards


Stephan Seeger