Thanks!!

This is what I ended up using that works

Code:

while [`echo $jobname | egrep '^[^[:blank:]]+$' | wc -l -gt 0 ]; do

MadeInGermany: I'm unaware of what the "x" in your example does. I'm not asking for a long winded explanation, although you may. If you don't mind give me a viable resource where I may read up on that functionality!

balaisuri: thanks for helping. I did try the ERE of "^$|^ *$" and it didn't work at least not on my system. it catches null but doesn't catch a line with a space.

Corona688: Thanks for the many responses. I'll have to wait till I have more time to go through your methods.