determine the Oracle version in a nutshell

On a host with multiple Oracle versions in multiple Oracle homes, it might be prove hard to quickly determine the Oracle version in a shell script. I came across the following method and like to share it.

First, grep the line from /etc/oratab which contains the ORACLE_SID at the beginning of that line:

grep -i ^$ORACLE_SID: /etc/oratab

Then cut everything behind the semicolon away:

cut -f2 -d:

this gives you the Oracle home path.

Now cut out everything behind the first dot:

cut -f1 -d.

Taking the basename, will remove the path and leave the Oracle version.
In one statement it will become:

VERSION=$( basename $(grep -i ^$ORACLE_SID: /etc/oratab | cut -f2 -d: | cut -f1 -d. ) )

I know that there are different ways. Suggestions welcome!