You don't want to "shorten your code" - you want to shorten the time it needs to get executed. This is sometimes, but not always the same.

First thing you should do in your code is straighten it out:

Code:

	for i in `cut -d "," -f4 $PAYROLL` #Loop Salary

You should NOT do this: you should not use a "for"-loop for a possibly long list, because the expansion will let the resulting line (after evaluation of the backticks) grow and shell command lines have a certain maximum length (see the "MAX_LIN" kernel constant). Further, you should not use the backticks at all, because they are deprecated. Use a simple pipeline with a while-loop:

Code:

	cut -d "," -f4 $PAYROLL | while read i ; do

Another point is: let. You havent't told us which shell you use, but you do not need "let" any more in any modern bourne-descending shell (ksh, bash, ...). Instead of

Code:

let "count_0_to_999 = count_0_to_999 + 1"

simply write

Code:

(( count_0_to_999 += 1 ))

Last hint: you start comparing at the bottom and therefore you have always two tests to perform to find out if a value is within a certain range. Start at the top and you have only one test. Pseudo-code:

Code:

if salary > 10000
     count_above_10000 += 1
elif salary >= 6000
     count_6000_to_9999 += 1
elif salary >= 2000
     count_5999_to_2000 += 1
elif salary >= 1000
     count_1999_to_1000 += 1
elif salary > 0
     count_999_to_0 += 1
else
     print "Error: we should never arrive here."
fi

A last point: typecast your variables before you use them:

Code:

typeset -i count_0_to_999=0
typeset -i count_1000_to_2999=0
typeset -i count_2000_to_5999=0
typeset -i count_6000_to_9999=0
typeset -i count_10000_above=0