namerefs alternative for KSH88


 
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# 1  
Old 09-24-2012
namerefs alternative for KSH88

I have to use KSH88, so going to BASH, perl etc. is not an option.

Below is a much simplified verison of what I am doing (aka ignore my cut command and i not increasing) Smilie

Code:
i=1
BIGSTRING="one two three four five six seven eight"

while [[ $i -le 10 ]]; do 
typeset "STRING$i=`echo $BIGSTRING| cut -d' ' -f1-50`"
typeset -n NEWVAR="STRING$i"
do_stuff_here_w_NEWVAR
done

Namerefs are not available in KSH88
So how else i can accomplish the same thing? I need to echo a string through cut and set it to an increasing variable name based on $i then call the new variable.

Last edited by Corona688; 09-24-2012 at 05:47 PM..
# 2  
Old 09-24-2012
I have no idea what that broken snippet of code is supposed to be doing. I'm not also sure what you mean by nameref's, since you don't appear to be doing anything that sets any variables except the ones you already told me to ignore...

I'll take a wild guess.

One way to set arbitrary variable names is to use read.

Code:
read var$NAME <<EOF
some text
EOF

# 3  
Old 09-24-2012
nameref is an alias for typedef in ksh93.

As far as I can see he is creating an array in a non-standard way.

Code:
BIGSTRING='1 2 3 4 5 777 last'
# the simplest way in ksh88
set -A myarray $BIGSTRING
echo ${myarray[0]}  # first element
arrlen=${#myarray[*]}
echo ${myarray[ arrlen -1 ] } # last element in the array.

# 4  
Old 09-25-2012
Quoting from The New Kornshell Command and Programming Language by Bolsky and Korn (copyright 1995):
Quote:
It is often desirable to pass the name of a variable rather than the value of the variable, as an argument to a function. A reference variable provides a mechanism for providing a local name for this variable. A reference variable is created with typeset -n, or with the preset alias nameref. The name of a reference variable must be an identifier. The value of the variable at the time the typeset -n attribute is specified, defines the variable that will be referenced by the reference variable. For instance, if the variable foo is assigned the value bar, and foo is given the name reference attribute, then each assignment to foo will be an assignment to bar.
There is probably a way to get replace the use of name references using eval, but I have other things I need to do tonight and don't have time to prepare and test an example tonight.

Sorry,
Don
This User Gave Thanks to Don Cragun For This Post:
# 5  
Old 09-25-2012
You could try:
Code:
$ STRING1='ABC    XYZ'
$ NEWVAR=STRING1
$ eval 'echo NEWVAR IS ACTUALLY "$'$NEWVAR'"'
NEWVAR IS ACTUALLY ABC    XYZ

as a workaround. But, if I were you, I would change my shell to one that supports namerefs...
This User Gave Thanks to elixir_sinari For This Post:
# 6  
Old 09-25-2012
The standard approach would be to use eval, but that needs to be done carefully, since it could introduce security risks..

What OS and version are you using?
# 7  
Old 09-25-2012
Here is what i ended up with after doing some research on uses of eval.
Code:
i=1
BIGSTRING="one two three four five six seven eight"

while [[ $i -le 10 ]]; do 
typeset "STRING$i=`echo $BIGSTRING| cut -d' ' -f1-50`"
# typeset -n NEWVAR="STRING$i"
eval "NEWVAR=\$STRING$i"
do_stuff_here_w_NEWVAR
done

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrutinizer
The standard approach would be to use eval, but that needs to be done carefully, since it could introduce security risks..

What OS and version are you using?
What do you mean security risk?
I am running on RHEL5 (KSH93) & HPUX, SOL5.10 (KSH88)
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