UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Normally I would post in the shell scripting area, but this is so basic I thought I'd best put it in the dummy area!

I want to set a series of numbered variables. I have a loop which increments a variable called $i with each loop. I want to name variables with this number e.g. var1, var2, var3 etc.

I have tried the following:

var$i="value"

but get the following:

var$i="value"
ksh: var1=value: not found.

It appears to make the substitution but fail to create the variable.

I'm sure I'm missing something here.

Hi.

In the early shells, eval was invented to help do this. Generally now arrays are easier to use.

Does the shell you are using support arrays? For example bash 2.05 does ... cheers, drl