Sponsored Content
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting need help testing for length of variable Post 302203728 by wlewis on Monday 9th of June 2008 04:49:09 PM
Old 06-09-2008
need help testing for length of variable

Hello, I'm new to shell scripting and need a little help please.

I'm working on a script that asks the user to input a name that can be 1 to 12 alphanumeric characters and can have dots(.) dashes(-) and spaces. I want to test that the answer is valid and if not make the user try again. I have no problem doing this with y|n questions or numeric only , but I haven't been able to figure this out.

Thanks.
 

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. Shell Programming and Scripting

creating a fixed length output from a variable length input

Is there a command that sets a variable length? I have a input of a variable length field but my output for that field needs to be set to 32 char. Is there such a command? I am on a sun box running ksh Thanks (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: r1500
2 Replies

2. Shell Programming and Scripting

testing length

I've never tested file length with shell before and I'm having problems. What I'm doing is testing $filename and $filename.bak to see if there is a difference. so I use 'diff' for that and send it to an output file 'dif.txt'. Now I wanna see if the length of 'dif.txt' is zero or not. that's where... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: astonmartin
1 Replies

3. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Convert a tab delimited/variable length file to fixed length file

Hi, all. I need to convert a file tab delimited/variable length file in AIX to a fixed lenght file delimited by spaces. This is the input file: 10200002<tab>US$ COM<tab>16/12/2008<tab>2,3775<tab>2,3783 19300978<tab>EURO<tab>16/12/2008<tab>3,28523<tab>3,28657 And this is the expected... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: Everton_Silveir
2 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

Make variable length record a fixed length

Very, very new to unix scripting and have a unique situation. I have a file of records that contain 3 records types: (H)eader Records (D)etail Records (T)railer Records The Detail records are 82 bytes in length which is perfect. The Header and Trailer records sometimes are 82 bytes in... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: jclanc8
3 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

Split variable length and variable format CSV file

Dear all, I have basic knowledge of Unix script and her I am trying to process variable length and variable format CSV file. The file length will depend on the numbers of Earnings/Deductions/Direct Deposits. And The format will depend on whether it is Earnings/Deductions or Direct Deposits... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: chechun
2 Replies

6. Shell Programming and Scripting

changing a variable length text to a fixed length

Hi, Can anyone help with a effective solution ? I need to change a variable length text field (between 1 - 18 characters) to a fixed length text of 18 characters with the unused portion, at the end, filled with spaces. The text field is actually field 10 of a .csv file however I could cut... (7 Replies)
Discussion started by: dc18
7 Replies

7. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Testing for non-zero length string

Hello, can someone please explain to me why this happens: myserver#echo "$nothing" myserver#if ; then echo "nothing is a zero length string"; fi nothing is a zero length string myserver#if ; then echo "nothing is also a non-zero length string, apparently"; fi nothing is also a non-zero... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: longjon
5 Replies

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

Testing the length of a string

Hello, Unix-Forums! Is there a command that can check how long a user-entered string is? Please don't give me a code, just the name of the command (playing around yourself is much more fun than just pasting code) edit: I'm sorry, first hit of the forum search gave me the answer. (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: intelinside
1 Replies

9. Shell Programming and Scripting

[Solved] How to increment and add variable length numbers to a variable in a loop?

Hi All, I have a file which has hundred of records with fixed number of fields. In each record there is set of 8 characters which represent the duration of that activity. I want to sum up the duration present in all the records for a report. The problem is the duration changes per record so I... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: danish0909
5 Replies

10. Shell Programming and Scripting

Convert variable length record to fixed length

Hi Team, I have an issue to split the file which is having special chracter(German Char) using awk command. I have a different length records in a file. I am separating the files based on the length using awk command. The command is working fine if the record is not having any... (7 Replies)
Discussion started by: Anthuvan
7 Replies
QUIZ(6) 							 BSD Games Manual							   QUIZ(6)

NAME
quiz -- random knowledge tests SYNOPSIS
quiz [-t] [-i file] [question answer] DESCRIPTION
The quiz utility tests your knowledge of random facts. It has a database of subjects from which you can choose. With no arguments, quiz displays the list of available subjects. The options are as follows: -t Use tutorial mode, in which questions are repeated later if you didn't get them right the first time, and new questions are presented less frequently to help you learn the older ones. -i Specify an alternative index file. Subjects are divided into categories. You can pick any two categories from the same subject. quiz will ask questions from the first cate- gory and it expects answers from the second category. For example, the command ``quiz victim killer'' asks questions which are the names of victims, and expects you to answer with the cause of their untimely demise, whereas the command ``quiz killer victim'' works the other way around. If you get the answer wrong, quiz lets you try again. To see the right answer, enter a blank line. Index and Data File Syntax The index and data files have a similar syntax. Lines in them consist of several categories separated by colons. The categories are regular expressions formed using the following meta-characters: pat|pat alternative patterns {pat} optional pattern [pat] delimiters, as in pat[pat|pat]pat In an index file, each line represents a subject. The first category in each subject is the pathname of the data file for the subject. The remaining categories are regular expressions for the titles of each category in the subject. In data files, each line represents a question/answer set. Each category is the information for the question/answer for that category. The backslash character (``'') is used to quote syntactically significant characters, or at the end of a line to signify that a continuation line follows. If either a question or its answer is empty, quiz will refrain from asking it. FILES
/usr/share/games/quiz.db The default index and data files. BUGS
quiz is pretty cynical about certain subjects. BSD
May 31, 1993 BSD
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 10:34 PM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy