Where did you get the string from?

|ip09_ftp.sh|{aimsdat}/IP09DF01_address.txt address|0|1|

It looks like field seperation using | as the delemiter. Keep in mind, the more background information you provide will lead to more complete answers.

The '|' or 'pipe' is metcharacter with a specific function; as stated earlier, it connects the output of one command to the input of another. Using it as a literal (ie, not wanting it to act as a pipe) would require you to escape it, ie '\|'.

From the ksh man page:

A pipeline is a sequence of one or more commands separated
by |. The standard output of each command but the last is
connected by a pipe(2) to the standard input of the next
command. Each command is run as a separate process; the
shell waits for the last command to terminate. The exit
status of a pipeline is the exit status of the last command.

If you are asking such basic questions, you would do well to read the man page for your shell of choice (ksh, sh, bash, csh, tcsh etc.)

$ man ksh

Cheers,

Keith