how to test input variable is a string in a select loop Post: 302490295

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Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting how to test input variable is a string in a select loop Post 302490295 by Straitsfan on Monday 24th of January 2011 01:04:02 PM

01-24-2011

Registered User

how to test input variable is a string in a select loop

Okay -- I hope I ask this correctly.

I'm working on my little shell script to write vendor names and aliases to files from user input. If a user choose to add to a file, he can do that as well. I'm using a select loop for this function to list all the possible files the user can choose from. Here is the code I have so far

Code:

echo
        PS3='FILE YOU WANT TO MODIFY: '
	options
        echo
	echo ADD DATA TO FILE:  FILES IN THE VENDORLIST FOLDER
	echo 
		select file in $(ls ~/vendorlists)  #uses file as the variable for the chosen file and lists all the files in the VENDORLIST folder
        		do
			echo							
                           open ~/vendorlists/$file
                         break
                         done

The user can enter P to go back to the previous menu, E to exit the script entirely, or M to go back to the main menu.

the open statement is temporary just so I could see if the function would even open the file. My problem is that when I tried using a case statement inside the select loop to test if the user entered P, E or M, then nothing happened. I know the select statement puts the files in a list and asks for which one the user wants. But how do I test to see if the user's choice is a P, E or M and take the appropriate action, or is in not possible to do that with the select statement? My guess is that with the select statement the variable is an integer and not a string. So can I test to see if the variable is an string or not, and if so, how?

Straitsfan

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which

which(1)							   User Commands							  which(1)

NAME

       which - locate a command; display its pathname or alias

SYNOPSIS

       which [filename...]

DESCRIPTION

       which  takes  a	list  of  names  and  looks for the files which would be executed had these names been given as commands. Each argument is
       expanded if it is aliased, and searched for along the user's path. Both aliases and path are taken from the user's .cshrc file.

FILES

       ~/.cshrc 	       source of aliases and path values

       /usr/bin/which

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWcsu			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       csh(1), attributes(5)

DIAGNOSTICS

       A diagnostic is given for names which are aliased to more than a single word, or if an executable file with the argument name was not found
       in the path.

NOTES

       which is not a shell built-in command; it is the UNIX command, /usr/bin/which

BUGS

       Only  aliases  and paths from ~/.cshrc are used; importing from the current environment is not attempted. Must be executed by csh(1), since
       only csh knows about aliases.

       To compensate for ~/.cshrc files in which aliases depend upon the prompt variable being set, which sets	this  variable	to  NULL.  If  the
       ~/.cshrc produces output or prompts for input when prompt is set, which may produce some strange results.

SunOS 5.10							    26 Sep 1992 							  which(1)