Shell Programming and Scripting

the length will be from runtime ... so i am not sure abt the how many zero to give

If this isn't working, you must be using an 1988 version of ksh. If you are on a Solaris/SunOS system, you could try /usr/xpg4/bin/sh or /usr/xpg6/bin/sh to get a 1993 version of ksh. You could also look for a ksh93 utility to use instead of plain ksh. Even if the ksh built-in printf doesn't recognize format specifiers like %0*d, there might be a /bin/printf or /usr/bin/printf that does understand what to do with it.

There is no options in

Code:

awk , sed ...

You're right. Maybe this then:

Code:

if [ -z "value" ]; then
  value=0
fi
typeset -RZ${length} value
echo $value

There is also a ${value:=0} syntax you could use that sets "value" to 0 if value is not set or is null.

---------- Post updated at 02:46 AM ---------- Previous update was at 02:41 AM ----------

So in other words, you might be able to just say:

Code:

typeset -RZ${length} value
echo ${value:=0}

that sounds grt to me .. it worked...

I have another problem now

i want to find a string/number variable value length...

Code:

ex:
value=value=`echo "$i_line1" | cut -d"|" -f4` ( this will be from run time .. i mean reading this value from another file which is pipe delimiter)
value_len=`echo  "$value\c" | wc -m`

if value is empty.. it is stil giving value_len as 15...
it should be empty ...not sure what is the problem

---------- Post updated at 05:51 AM ---------- Previous update was at 04:52 AM ----------

i searched and used atlast

Code:

 
value_len=`echo  ${#value}`

Sounds like it is working now. In case not:

Why do you say "value=value=`echo" instead of just "value=`echo" expression?

It would help to have some diagnostic lines like "echo $i_line1" and "echo $value" all by themselves to help track down what is going on.