I have three lines in a log that I want to check to make sure that they say the following (mm/dd/yyyy and hh:mm:ss changes depending in when the log is generated):

'*** Testing file for mm/dd/yyyy'
'*** End of procedure! Time was: hh:mm:ss'
'*** End ***'

I did some sed and cut and ended up with something like this (the constant portion):
When I echo out the uncut lines (as is) compared to the cut lines, they match up to the point where I did the cut:

'*** Testing file for mm/dd/yyyy'
'*** Testing file for'
'*** End of procedure! Time was: hh:mm:ss'
'*** End of procedure! Time was'
'*** End ***'
'*** End ***'

Technically, my if-then statement matches the cut lines but the else ALWAYS gets executed even though the test echo statements I did seemt to match exactly to the dot...what is going on?? I can't figure it out. I thought it was some blanks somewhere but that did not appear to be the case. Anyone??

Gianni

added code tags for readability --oombera

That's some very creative syntax you have there. I've never seen an "if" statement like that.

But look where you are checking $second. You have mispositioned the explanation point in your constant.

The '!' in the wrong position was a typo but that didn't do anything..I'm still getting the error like it is not matching.

Also, is that wrong to write an if-else-then like that or you're just making an observation. I have tons of codes with that type of if-else-then...hehe

Thanks.

Would be even better if someone can help me figure out how to check for the entire line content, keeping in mind that the pattern would still be:

*** Testing file for mm/dd/yyyy' '*** End of procedure! Time was: hh:mm:ss'

Would this make sense for pattern mm/dd/yyyy in the first line?

[0-1][0-2]/[0-3][0-9]/200[3-9]?

Thanks.

If what you said was true, this should be working. This script will print "ok" when I run it. Give it it try and see if it works for you.

And try:
echo first = \"${first}\"
Maybe you have trailing blanks.

It didn't work when I made the change as you've suggestd. Still causing error handling to be performed. It is only a problem on those lines where I did the cut. If I compare the line as is (last line) then it always executes successfully. This is why I am not sure if it is something else. I am not sure why the trimmed lines would be a problem though because what I trimmed and what I compared the trimmed lines to are identical as far as I can tell...

Maybe you could put echo $first, echo $second and echo $third after "else" in the code just to make sure the values are what you intend them to be..