Shell Programming and Scripting

hi all
I am new to unix and want to create a loop to repeat the loop and before that it ask me to do so.I know "while" may help but I put it in my work and getting stuk with it.any help appreciated.

What did you try so far ?
Pls post your code, so we can help you to troubleshoot it then

thanks for reply.here is my work.

while

PS3="Choose your favourite flower from these possibilities: "

select FLOWER in rose sunflower cornflower lily
if [[ -z "$FLOWER" ]]
then
echo "You typed a wrong figure."
else
echo "You choose $FLOWER as your favourite."
fi
break
echo "repeat?"
read var
if [ "$var" = "no" ]
then
echo "you choosed to exit"
break
else
fi
done

read var

This is an example (i did intentionally kept as closed to your code as i could)
$REPLY is the build-in variable that works with select case statement (ksh)

Code:

echo "Flower choice:"
PS3="Choose your favourite flower from these possibilities: "
select FLOWER in rose sunflower cornflower lily
do
        case $REPLY in
                1|2|3|4) echo "You have choosen $FLOWER as your favourite." ;;
                *) echo "You typed a wrong figure.";;
        esac
echo "repeat?"
read var
if [[ -z "$var" || "$var" = "no" ]]
then
        echo "you choosed to exit"
        break
fi
done

thanks very much for your help.It worked perfect.

other question if I want to make it accepts two or more variables without entering the number(just gives an option to entre three variable names),I mean entering values and testing them that are from the existence name.how can I do that?
regards

REPLY do work with select statement but it will point to the increment number of the chosen value (as is appears in the menu built by the select).

To understand, you can run this code :

Code:

echo "Flower choice:"
PS3="Choose your favourite flower from these possibilities: "
select FLOWER in rose sunflower cornflower lily
do
echo "REPLY=$REPLY FLOWER=$FLOWER"
[[ -z "$FLOWER" ]] && break
done

ctsgnb! you so kind and helped me alot to understand more unix.
I would like to ask if we have e.g 7 or less names and we want to select three names of them in one go and test them that are included in our pre-created names(for example they are file names),what is the best solution?I have used IF statement but it seems very long statement as I had to test it for each name (for example each variable should not be blank or other things).my question is do we need to check each variable or there is simple way exist?
for example:
echo "benz bmw gms nissan polo"
echo "select four names out these names:\c"
read name1 name2 name3
while [[ $name1 = "" ]]
do
echo "no entry"
read name1 name2 name3

while [[ $name2 = "" ]]
do
echo "no entry"

echo "Please enter your choices: \c"

read name1 name2 name3

while [[ $name3 = "" ]]
do
echo "no entry"
echo "please enter your choices:\c"
read name1 name2 name3

if [[ -f $name1 ]]
then
echo "$name1"
else
echo "$name1 does not exist"
fi

if [[ -f $name2 ]]
then
echo "$name2"
else
echo "$name2 does not exist"
fi

if [[ -f $name3 ]]
then
echo "$name3"
else
echo "$name3 does not exist"
fi
done

It would be so appreciated if you can see where I am in wrong place?
Regards