Sponsored Content
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting need help testing for length of variable Post 302203853 by era on Tuesday 10th of June 2008 03:24:55 AM
Old 06-10-2008
Code:
while true; do
  echo -n "Enter your favorite string: "
  read n
  case $n in
    ?????????????*) echo "Must be less than 12 characters";;
    '') echo "Must not be empty";;
    *[!A-Za-z0-9. -]*) echo "Must only contain letters, numbers, periods, spaces, and dashes";;
    *) break;;
  esac
  echo Try again.
done

The break is what breaks out of the while loop.

You should note that read will parse backslashes in user input. If you don't want that, see if your shell offers read -r
 

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
echo(1B)					     SunOS/BSD Compatibility Package Commands						  echo(1B)

NAME
echo - echo arguments to standard output SYNOPSIS
/usr/ucb/echo [-n] [argument] DESCRIPTION
echo writes its arguments, separated by BLANKs and terminated by a NEWLINE, to the standard output. echo is useful for producing diagnostics in command files and for sending known data into a pipe, and for displaying the contents of envi- ronment variables. For example, you can use echo to determine how many subdirectories below the root directory (/) is your current directory, as follows: o echo your current-working-directory's full pathname o pipe the output through tr to translate the path's embedded slash-characters into space-characters o pipe that output through wc -w for a count of the names in your path. example% /usr/bin/echo "echo $PWD | tr '/' ' ' | wc -w" See tr(1) and wc(1) for their functionality. The shells csh(1), ksh(1), and sh(1), each have an echo built-in command, which, by default, will have precedence, and will be invoked if the user calls echo without a full pathname. /usr/ucb/echo and csh's echo() have an -n option, but do not understand back-slashed escape characters. sh's echo(), ksh's echo(), and /usr/bin/echo, on the other hand, understand the black-slashed escape characters, and ksh's echo() also understands a as the audible bell character; however, these commands do not have an -n option. OPTIONS
-n Do not add the NEWLINE to the output. ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWscpu | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ SEE ALSO
csh(1), echo(1), ksh(1), sh(1), tr(1), wc(1), attributes(5) NOTES
The -n option is a transition aid for BSD applications, and may not be supported in future releases. SunOS 5.11 3 Aug 1994 echo(1B)
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 11:30 AM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy