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reading in arguments with spaces

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# 1  
Old 04-22-2009
reading in arguments with spaces
I want to be able to read in input which contain spaces and put that into an array. Each field should be delimeted by a space and should be a different array element. However I cant get it to work. any tips?

Code:
read input
//type field1 field2 field3
echo "$input"
array="$input"

Thanks in advance

Calypso
# 2  
Old 04-22-2009
Code:
read input
set -f
IFS=' '
array=( $input )

# 3  
Old 04-23-2009
Thanks very much for that, the only problem is that if a filed is a metacharacter for example "*" it doesnt seem to work. Ive tried looking on the net but I cant find any similiar examples, any other ideas?


Calypso
# 4  
Old 04-23-2009
Try something like this :-

Code:
#!/bin/ksh

input="$@"

set -A array $input

print "Array element 0 = ${array}"
print "Array element 1 = ${array[1]"
print "Array element 4 = ${array[4]"

Call with :

Code:
# ./script zero one two three four

# 5  
Old 04-23-2009
Hi lavascript,

sorry its not script arguments im trying to split up, im reading user input in a while loop e.g

while true
do read input
#split input here into array elements
done

also I am using bash shell and set -A gives me an error

"line 84: set: -A invalid options"
# 6  
Old 04-23-2009
ok apologies set -A is for ksh.

Are you doing a while loop for another task or is it purely for this function?

Assuming you want to do other things in your while loop you can try the below code. Otherwise you don't need the while. Saying that you could use while instead of for but below would need changes.

Code:

array=""
array_count=0

for element in $input
do
     ... do some checking....
     array[$array_count]=$element
     ... do other stuff .....
     array_count=$(( $array_count + 1 ))
done

# 7  
Old 04-23-2009
Yes I am using the while loop for other purpases

Im afraid its still not working, if i type in "5 * 5" and then print out all array elements i get

element 0 - "5"
element 1 - "file 1 in directory"
element 2 - "file 2 in directory"
element n-1 - "file n in directory"
element n - "5"

Calypso
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