I'm currently learning Bash scripting from a book and the following example is given, but I think there is a typo in the variable assignment for the variable file.

$ cat test5
 #!/bin/bash
 # reading values from a file
 
 file=“states”    ( shouldn't this be file=`cat states` assuming you have a 
                        text file with the list , doesn't this just assign the single 
                        string states? )
 for state in ‘cat $file’
 do
 echo “Visit beautiful $state”
 done
 $ cat states
 Alabama
 Alaska
 Arizona
 Arkansas
 Colorado
 Connecticut
 Delaware
 Florida
 Georgia
 $ ./test5
 Visit beautiful Alabama
 Visit beautiful Alaska
 Visit beautiful Arizona
 Visit beautiful Arkansas
 Visit beautiful Colorado
 Visit beautiful Connecticut
 Visit beautiful Delaware
 Visit beautiful Florida
 Visit beautiful Georgia
 $

No, the book is right.

file=“states”

file=“states”    
while read state
do
     echo “Visit beautiful $state”
done < $file

No quotes are needed in this case: file=states would suffice, but they won't hurt if they are the right double quotes, which is not the case here “” vs. ""

Thank you for the quick replies.

Why does

file="states"

You are using are the wrong kind of double quotes. Either you copied it from somewhere instead of typing it at the keyboard, or typed it in Microsoft Word or something.

$ file=“states”      # these are the wrong quotes
$ echo "$file"
“states”
$ file="states"      # these are the right quotes
$ echo "$file"
states

So if you have a file named states and you type the following:

file=states

$./test5
Visit beautiful states

Just the string states