Brace expansion is a useful technique for generating arbitrary strings in the shell. I use it infrequently enough that whenever I do reach for it I invariably find that a) I've forgotten how to do it, and b) I've forgotten what it's called so I can't even google it.
I'm writing it down here so I'll remember it in future just to spite myself.
An expansion pattern consists of an optional preamble followed by a pair of braces containing a comma-separated list of strings followed by an optional postscript:
$ echo a{x,y,z}b
axb ayb azb
Alternatively, the braces can contain a sequence expression specifying a range of characters or integers:
$ echo {a..z}
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
$ echo {1..10}
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Expansion patterns can be combined and nested; combining patterns generates all possible combinations:
$ echo {A..Z}{0..9}
A0 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 B0 B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 B9 C0 C1
C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 D0 D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 D9 E0 E1 E2 E3
E4 E5 E6 E7 E8 E9 F0 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 G0 G1 G2 G3 G4 G5
G6 G7 G8 G9 H0 H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 H7 H8 H9 I0 I1 I2 I3 I4 I5 I6 I7
I8 I9 J0 J1 J2 J3 J4 J5 J6 J7 J8 J9 K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 K8 K9
L0 L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 L8 L9 M0 M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 N0 N1
N2 N3 N4 N5 N6 N7 N8 N9 O0 O1 O2 O3 O4 O5 O6 O7 O8 O9 P0 P1 P2 P3
P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 Q0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 R0 R1 R2 R3 R4 R5
R6 R7 R8 R9 S0 S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7 S8 S9 T0 T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7
T8 T9 U0 U1 U2 U3 U4 U5 U6 U7 U8 U9 V0 V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8 V9
W0 W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7 W8 W9 X0 X1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 X8 X9 Y0 Y1
Y2 Y3 Y4 Y5 Y6 Y7 Y8 Y9 Z0 Z1 Z2 Z3 Z4 Z5 Z6 Z7 Z8 Z9
Bash 4 adds zero-padded integer ranges:
$ echo {001..010}
001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008 009 010
And increments:
$ echo {1..10..2}
1 3 5 7 9
Interestingly, increments even work for character ranges:
$ echo {a..z..2}
a c e g i k m o q s u w y