What is the difference between $VARIABLE and ${VARIABLE}

Question

Can anyone please provide me an explanation as to why some Linux expert suggest that we use ${VARIABLE} in Bash scripts? There doesn't seem to be any difference at all.

Answer 1

Say you want to print $VARIABLE immediately followed by "string"

echo "$VARIABLEstring"    # tries to print the variable called VARIABLEstring
echo "${VARIABLE}string"  # prints $VARIABLE and then "string"

Bash also supports string manipulation using this syntax.