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metacharacters separation

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# 1  
Old 01-15-2011
metacharacters separation
I have prepared a script to submit a string in a txt file.
However there are somethings that I have to check before submitting the string in the txt file.
One of those checks is to determine whether the string entered contains any metacharacters.
I have tried sth like;
Code:
echo "string" | grep -v [a-zA-Z0-9]
echo "string" | egrep -v .|,|!

however it doesn't work.
How can i check whether the string entered includes any metacharacters or not?
Last edited by Franklin52; 01-17-2011 at 04:23 AM.. Reason: Please use code tags
# 2  
Old 01-15-2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by ozum
I have prepared a script to submit a string in a txt file.
However there are somethings that I have to check before submitting the string in the txt file.
One of those checks is to determine whether the string entered contains any metacharacters.
I have tried sth like;
echo "string" | grep -v [a-zA-Z0-9]
echo "string" | egrep -v .|,|!
however it doesn't work.
How can i check whether the string entered includes any metacharacters or not?
Code:
case "$string" in
     *[!a-zA-Z0-9]*) echo "non alphnumeric" ;;
     *) echo OK ;;
esac

# 3  
Old 01-16-2011
thank you for the response however
this one didn't work since i 'm using a sentence as a string.
here is the response;

Code:
>more alphanumeric.sh
case "$1" in
     *[!a-zA-Z0-9]*) echo "non alphnumeric" ;;
     *) echo OK ;;
esac
>./alphanumeric.sh "this sentence doesn't contain any metacharacters"
non alphnumeric
>./alphanumeric.sh "this sentence contains * metacharacters"
non alphnumeric

###
also other than the alphanumerics, my sentence can also contain . or , or !
Can you help me with this?
Last edited by Franklin52; 01-17-2011 at 04:24 AM.. Reason: code tags
# 4  
Old 01-16-2011

Add whatever characters you want to allow to the pattern, e.g.:
Code:
case "$string" in
     *[!a-zA-Z0-9\ !]*) echo "not OK" ;;
     *) echo OK ;;
esac

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