Some useful strings:
$$ = The PID number of the process executing the shell.
$? = Exit status variable.
$0 = The name of the command you used to call a program.
$1 = The first argument on the command line.
$2 = The second argument on the command line.
$n = The nth argument on the command line.
$* = All the arguments on the command line.
$# The number of command line arguments.