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  #1  
Old 02-08-2005
Registered User
  

Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 10
Unhappy Length of a variable
Hi,
I have another question, I am very new to scripting. I am using c shell.
I am trying to get the length of a variable. Right now I am using
set var = 12
echo $#var

but the # operator isn't working, it is telling me that the length is 1 when it is obviously two....

help!
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  #2  
Old 02-08-2005
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 97
Quote:
Originally Posted by karyn1617
Hi,
I have another question, I am very new to scripting. I am using c shell.
I am trying to get the length of a variable. Right now I am using
set var = 12
echo $#var

but the # operator isn't working, it is telling me that the length is 1 when it is obviously two....

help!
echo $var | awk '{print length($0)}'

in your case try the one below,

vLEN='echo ${#var}'
Last edited by thumsup9; 02-08-2005 at 12:46 PM.
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  #3  
Old 02-08-2005
vgersh99's Avatar
Moderator
  

Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 3,003
Quote:
$#name
${#name} These give the number of words in the variable.
Csh considered harmful
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  #4  
Old 02-08-2005
zazzybob's Avatar
Registered Geek
  

Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 2,100
Quote:
Originally Posted by karyn1617
but the # operator isn't working, it is telling me that the length is 1 when it is obviously two....
From the csh manual page, you'll see that the $#varname construct gives you the number of words contained within the variable, not the number of characters, i.e.
Code:
% set blah = `echo "foo bar cog dog"`
% echo $#blah
4
I totally agree with vgersh99 - csh should not be used (wherever possible) for scripting. It is far less powerful and flexible than Bourne-based shells.

For example, with bash
Code:
$ foo=12
$ echo ${#foo}
2
Which is exactly the result that you want!

Cheers
ZB
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