Shell Programming and Scripting

It looks like I have to set some hard defaults before checking the user options.

Then set other mandatory variables after checking the user values by searching in the local directory if user did not specify them.

So there are things that are mandatory for the script but not mandatory for the user.

For this reason I am thinking of setting any default values at the beginning, then checking user options, after which I set any variables or defaults
that are based on the user options.

Should you have a more sensible idea about this, it would be great for me to go for it.

Why not search first then, if the user inputs them, replace the value.

Fewer decisions that way.

I see, just got confused on the part having

Code:

 
read VAR <<<"$STR"

I understand it now. Everything is dome from the file settings.

---------- Post updated at 02:05 PM ---------- Previous update was at 01:58 PM ----------

That's a good point. My thinking was that I avoid doing searches when the user specifies the files he wants. Your idea still helps, as everything would then be sectioned nicely in blocks, which is something I have ended to favour.

@Kristinu, in your original post, use:

Code:

  "--"[cC][mM][oO][dD]|\
  "--"[cC][mM][oO][dD]"-"[iI][fF][lL])
    shift
    value["cmodInfl"]="${1}"
    hasArgument["cmodIfl"]=true
  ;;

And so on for all the other array elements..

Otherwise it all gets assigned to array element 0.

*edit* this assertion is incorrect..

If I declare the arrays as associative using the setting below, I get no problems if I just use value[cmodInfl]. However, if the string involves spaces, then one should use double quotes such as for value["cmod Infl"]

Code:

declare -A value 
declare -A hasArgument

Yes that is right, declare, I was looking for the bash 4 equivalent of ksh93's typeset -A good you found the answer. Is it working as expected now?

I thought it was ok, however corona suggested it is not the way to do things. Just assign default in the beginning and then if the user chooses the option overwrite it. He also suggested that checking should be done on the value string directly. If it is not set, then the option was not used.

I think I need to put a full example as things are very complicated.

---------- Post updated at 06:03 AM ---------- Previous update was at 05:19 AM ----------

The following code did work, returning

Code:

hasArgument[mytest0] set to 0
hasArgument[mytest1] set to 1

Code:

declare -A hasArgument

hasArgument[mytest0]=false
hasArgument[mytest1]=true

if ! ${hasArgument[mytest0]}; then
  echo "hasArgument[mytest0] set to 0"
fi

if ${hasArgument[mytest1]}; then
  echo "hasArgument[mytest1] set to 1"
fi