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find length of a parameter

 
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# 1  
Old 09-07-2008
find length of a parameter
I want to check the length of a parameter passed to the korn shell. I've tested:

xxx=hello
echo $xxx
cnt=`echo $xxx |wc -c`
echo "cnt $cnt"

(xxx will be the parm). $cnt is 6, it should be 5. I keep getting 1 more then I should. Why is that? How do I code to get the length of a parameter?


# 2  
Old 09-08-2008
wc -c counts bytes, not characters. I guess it is counting the \0 as end of the string, so you got one more than you want.
On AIX you can use wc -k or on Debian Linux wc -m to get the number of characters. Do "man wc" which switch is the one you need on your OS.
# 3  
Old 09-08-2008
xxx="Hello"
len=${#xxx}
echo "cnt $len"
# 4  
Old 09-08-2008
Actually wc is counting the newline at the end. Use echo -n or whatever your local echo has for not adding a newline; or better, don't use echo -- the approach offered by manosubsulo is superior.
# 5  
Old 09-17-2008
Thank you for your replies. I could not get them to work correctly. I found another post that worked:
cnt=`expr length $xxx`
 
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