how to check first character in var's value. Post: 76906

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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers how to check first character in var's value. Post 76906 by yongho on Friday 1st of July 2005 11:10:13 AM

07-01-2005

Registered User

typset -Z2

The Typeset -Z2 command you told me about works really great for the if statement I posted before, since now I don't even need the if statement. But later on in the script, I need to take the value of the day in that variable and run a GREP for "today's" files.

For example:

ls -al <path> | grep "$date_b $date_d"

This will retrieve all files/directories that were created "today" in this format:
"Jun 22" or "Jun 24"... However this command breaks for a day like today "Jun 01". It fails because ls -al returns a day value that looks like this "Jun 1" (double space between Jun and 1). Instead of a padded zero, it's just replaced with a space.

So my script failed to work today because it tried to grep "Jun 1" instead of "Jun 1" (double space between Jun and 1). Is there a way I can check to see if the `date +d` command gave me a padded zero or not? (Check the first character of the string to see if it's zero, and if so, replace with a space).

Code:

#!/bin/ksh

date_b=`date +%b`
date_d=`date +%d`

ls -al <path> | grep "$date_b $date_d"

The script above only works for the days of the month that are between the 10th and the 31st, but fails for all values betwee 01 and 09.

yongho

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LEARN ABOUT BSD

calendar

CALENDAR(1)						      General Commands Manual						       CALENDAR(1)

NAME

       calendar - reminder service

SYNOPSIS

       calendar [ - ]

DESCRIPTION

       Calendar consults the file `calendar' in the current directory and prints out lines that contain today's or tomorrow's date anywhere in the
       line.  Most reasonable month-day dates such as `Dec. 7,' `december 7,' `12/7,' etc., are recognized, but not `7 December'  or  `7/12'.	If
       you give the month as ``*'' with a date, i.e. ``* 1'', that day in any month will do.  On weekends `tomorrow' extends through Monday.

       When  an argument is present, calendar does its job for every user who has a file `calendar' in his login directory and sends him any posi-
       tive results by mail(1).  Normally this is done daily in the wee hours under control of cron(8).

       The file `calendar' is first run through the ``C'' preprocessor, /lib/cpp, to include any other calendar files  specified  with	the  usual
       ``#include'' syntax.  Included calendars will usually be shared by all users, maintained and documented by the local administration.

FILES

       calendar
       /usr/libexec/calendar to figure out today's and tomorrow's dates
       /etc/passwd
       /tmp/cal*
       /lib/cpp, egrep, sed, mail as subprocesses

SEE ALSO

       at(1), cron(8), mail(1)

BUGS

       Calendar's extended idea of `tomorrow' doesn't account for holidays.

7th Edition							 October 21, 1996						       CALENDAR(1)

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