Strings manipulation without using variables

[Francesco Pretto]

Hello,

I'm sorry if this isn't the wrong place to ask, but I couldn't find an user
mailing list. My question is if it's possible to manipulate strings without
using  variables. Or, how to do the following in one line without using a
variable:

FILENAME=$(ls | tail --lines=1)
echo ${FILENAME%.*}

I searched a lot and, surprisingly, I couldn't find any other syntax.

Thanks,
Francesco