Originally Posted by Silentwolf

In my continuing struggle with my menu for record manipulation, I've been scripting to add records to the 'records' file. For the most part, I've been successful. I am, however, running into a strange problem.

Code:

                                while [ ! $gn_correct ]
                                do
                                        echo -n "Given name: "
                                        read g_name
                                        if [ ! $g_name ] ; then
                                                echo "Given name not entered."
                                        elif [ `expr substr $g_name 1 1` = " " ] ; then
                                                echo "Given name may not begin with a space."
                                        elif [[ $g_name = $(echo "$g_name" | tr -dc '[A-za-z ]') ]] ; then
                                                gn_correct=1
                                                echo -n "$g_name:" >> records
                                        else echo "Given name can contain only alphabetic characters and spaces"
                                        fi

                                # Close given name loop.
                                done

The above code reads in a person's given name. It makes sure that a name has been entered, then proceeds. The problem lies here:

Code:

elif [ `expr substr $g_name 1 1` = " " ] ; then
                                                echo "Given name may not begin with a space."

The idea is to test to make sure the first character in the string received for the given name is not a space and return an error-echo if it is. It'll then repeat the loop, so the user is given another opportunity to get it right. In theory this continues until a valid given name is received.

However, it doesn't work this way. Instead, this code is skipped over. Spaces are truncated from entries with a leading space anyway - but the problem is, I'm using this same code to collect job title information. Job titles often have spaces in them (though not at the start.)

The expr continues to fail at picking up leading spaces - but, more strangely, if there is a space somewhere else in the string, expr encounters a syntax error, and the echo displays that a job title may not begin with a space.

Any suggestions on how I could detect leading spaces and produce an error, while still allowing spaces elsewhere in the string?

Thanks in advance for help,
Wolfie

/home/ans >x=' zxc'
/home/ans >echo "$x"
zxc
/home/ans >echo "$x" | grep '^ '
zxc
/home/ans >x="fds"
/home/ans >echo "$x" | grep '^ '
/home/ans >