Sponsored Content
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Korn expr substr fails for non-numeric value Post 302382971 by nabramovitz on Monday 28th of December 2009 11:00:53 AM
Old 12-28-2009
I have not tested this, but if your input data only contains letters and numbers then maybe something like this would work.

extractNumbers()
{
oldIFS="$IFS"
IFS="abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
set -- $1
IFS=${oldIFS}
unset oldIFS # Old Bourne Shells do not support typeset on variable definiions
# remove empty arguments
for a in $*
do
# or add logic to use arithmetic operators to extract your number portion or whatever else you want before
# echoing the result back
echo $1
break
done
}

Last edited by nabramovitz; 12-28-2009 at 12:06 PM..
 

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. Shell Programming and Scripting

Perl code to differentiate numeric and non-numeric input

Hi All, Is there any code in Perl which can differentiate between numeric and non-numeric input? (11 Replies)
Discussion started by: Raynon
11 Replies

2. Shell Programming and Scripting

substr() thru awk Korn Shell Script

Hi, I am new stuff to learn substr() function through awk for writing the Korn shell script. Is there a way to copy from XXXX1234.ABCDEF to XXX1234 file names without changing both data files? I appreciate your time to response this email. Thanks, Steve (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: sbryant
4 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

test expr VS [ expr ]

What is the difference between test expr VS . For example : if test 5 -eq 6 echo "Wrong" and if echo "Wrong" bot will give the same output as Wrong. Now, what is the difference between these two? though they are producing the same result why we need two? Any answer will be... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: ashok.g
2 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

help required for 'expr substr' function

hi iam trying to extract a certain portion of the string whose value is stored below,but am getting syntax eror.The command is shown below for file in GMG_BASEL2*.txt do m1= cat reporting_date.txt year= expr substr $m1 1 2 echo $year done m1 has date 10/31/2009 but this vale... (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: jagadeeshn04
6 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

expr: non-numeric argument

Hi all, i am facing the error "expr: non-numeric argument" when i use the expr command. Following is the expression which i want to execute HR=$(echo `date +%H`) MIN=$(echo `date +%M`) TOT_MIN=`expr "$HR" \* 60+$MIN` | bc echo $TOT_MIN Here I am being reported with the error expr:... (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: sparks
6 Replies

6. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Find and Replace random numeric value with non-numeric value

Can someone tell me how to change the first column in a very large 17k line file from a random 10 digit numeric value to a non numeric value. The format of lines in the file is: 1702938475,SNU022,201004 the first 10 numbers always begin with 170 (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: Bahf1s
6 Replies

7. Shell Programming and Scripting

awk substr fails

Hi all, I want to get each line of a data file from position 464 plus 8 characters. I tried in two different ways, and the results were different. I'd like to know why. First method, using awk: awk '{print substr($0,464,8)}' CONCIL_VUELTA_ALF_100112_0801.okSecond method, using scripting:... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: AlbertGM
5 Replies

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

Error with expr - "expr: syntax error"

Hi All, I'm writing a shell script in KSH, where I want to store the filename, total record count and actual record count of all the source files. The source files reside in 4 different sub-folders under the same root folder. Below is code: #!/usr/bin/ksh... (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: jagari
6 Replies

9. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Substr

awk '/^>/{id=$0;next}length>=7 { print id, "\n"$0}' Test.txt Can I use substr to achieve the same task? Thanks! (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: Xterra
8 Replies

10. Shell Programming and Scripting

Expr: non-numeric argument syntax error on line 1, teletype

Hi, I tried to look up the issue i'm experiencing, but i'm confused what's wrong with my script. After executing the script I'm getting the following error expr: non-numeric argument syntax error on line 1, teletype After some research, it seems that the problem relates to bc. I have... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: nms
1 Replies
EXPR(1) 						      General Commands Manual							   EXPR(1)

NAME
expr - evaluate arguments as an expression SYNOPSIS
expr arg ... DESCRIPTION
The arguments are taken as an expression. After evaluation, the result is written on the standard output. Each token of the expression is a separate argument. The operators and keywords are listed below. The list is in order of increasing precedence, with equal precedence operators grouped. expr | expr yields the first expr if it is neither null nor `0', otherwise yields the second expr. expr & expr yields the first expr if neither expr is null or `0', otherwise yields `0'. expr relop expr where relop is one of < <= = != >= >, yields `1' if the indicated comparison is true, `0' if false. The comparison is numeric if both expr are integers, otherwise lexicographic. expr + expr expr - expr addition or subtraction of the arguments. expr * expr expr / expr expr % expr multiplication, division, or remainder of the arguments. expr : expr The matching operator compares the string first argument with the regular expression second argument; regular expression syntax is the same as that of ed(1). The (...) pattern symbols can be used to select a portion of the first argument. Otherwise, the matching operator yields the number of characters matched (`0' on failure). ( expr ) parentheses for grouping. Examples: To add 1 to the Shell variable a: a=`expr $a + 1` To find the filename part (least significant part) of the pathname stored in variable a, which may or may not contain `/': expr $a : '.*/(.*)' '|' $a Note the quoted Shell metacharacters. SEE ALSO
ed(1), sh(1), test(1) DIAGNOSTICS
Expr returns the following exit codes: 0 if the expression is neither null nor `0', 1 if the expression is null or `0', 2 for invalid expressions. EXPR(1)
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 10:42 AM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy