I need to validate the special characters of a date (the characters between the year and month & month and day). The data filed is being populated by users and read into the script vi an argument. I want to ensure that the date is a '-' (dash) and not a '/' or '\' (slash).

The every thing I have tried has failed and I have run out of ideas. I'm new to scripting and don't know where else to turn. Please help if you can. Thanks.

# ! /bin/ksh
set -x
V_DATE='2008-08-30'
echo $V_DATE
V_DATE_DASH1=`echo $V_DATE | cut -c 5`
echo 'INFO V_DATE_DASH1: ' $V_DATE_DASH1>>${LOGFILE}
V_DASH='-'
echo 'INFO V_DASH:'$V_DASH>>${LOGFILE}
echo $V_DATE_DASH1 = $V_DASH
if `${V_DATE_DASH1} = ${V_DASH}`
then echo 'INFO V_DATE_DASH1 is OK'>>${LOGFILE}
else echo 'ERROR V_DATE_DASH1 not a "-" '>>${LOGFILE}
usage
fi

corrected your code but maybe I had too much "beaujolais nouveau" just now...

#!/usr/bin/ksh
set -x
V_DATE='2008-08-30'
echo $V_DATE
V_DATE_DASH1=$(echo $V_DATE | cut -c 5)
echo 'INFO V_DATE_DASH1: ' $V_DATE_DASH1
V_DASH="-"
echo 'INFO V_DASH:'$V_DASH
read pp
echo $V_DATE_DASH1 = $V_DASH
read pp
if [ "$V_DATE_DASH1" = "$V_DASH" ]
   then echo "INFO V_DATE_DASH1 is OK"
else echo "ERROR V_DATE_DASH1 not a "-" "
   usage  # Im waiting to see...
fi

Thank you. I really appreciate the help. Have another glass to celebrate, it works.

It was my pleasure.


Best regards