Help with loops?


 
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# 1  
Old 10-19-2014
Question Help with loops?

I'm trying to understand better the while and until loops, can someone help me with this example?

Code:
#!/bin/bash
# Listing the planets.

for planet in Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto
do
  echo $planet  # Each planet on a separate line.
done

echo; echo

for planet in "Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto"
    # All planets on same line.
    # Entire 'list' enclosed in quotes creates a single variable.
    # Why? Whitespace incorporated into the variable.
do
  echo $planet
done

echo; echo "Whoops! Pluto is no longer a planet!"

exit 0

Can anyone show me how can this be done but with a while and an until loop?
# 2  
Old 10-19-2014
You can iterate over an array in a while loop. First we'll need an array though. sh only has 1 -- $@. Let's use that.

Code:
$ set -- Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto
$ while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do echo $1; shift; done
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto

You can do it without shifting as well. Here is another example using an array in bash.

Code:
$ declare -a planets=(Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto)
$ i=0; while (( i < ${#planets[@]} )); do echo "${planets[i]}"; ((i++)); done
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto

You can quote either list to see the difference.
# 3  
Old 10-19-2014
while loops while is true or until is false, until loops while is false or until is true.

Code:
#!/bin/bash

campaign="on"

while [ "$campaign" == "on" ]; do
	politician="liar"	
	echo "I am a $politician"
	campaign="off"
done

until [ "$campaign" == "on" ]; do
	politician="sucker"
	echo "I am a $politician"
	campaign="on"
done

This User Gave Thanks to Aia For This Post:
# 4  
Old 10-20-2014
Some more examples, hope they help Smilie

Code:
# for loop with a case statement
for planet in Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto;do
	case $planet in
	Earth)	echo "You live here on $planet"
		;;
	Pluto)	echo "$planet is no longer a planet"
		;;
	*)	echo "$planet"
		;;
	esac
done

# while loop with a counter
C=0
MAX=100
printf '\n\n\t%s\n\n' "Current numbers:"
while [[ $C -le $MAX ]];do
	printf '%s' "$C "
	c=$[ $C % 2 ]
	[[ 0 -eq $c ]] && echo "... is an equal number"
	((C++))
done

Since you pass all arguments as a single quote (all planets/words are within the same quotes), it is handled as a single string.
Therefor, there is only 1 entry, holding all the words.

However, passing an array is diffrently, there you should use: "${@}"
Here, the quotes will embrace each single element of the array, eg: a filename with whitespace in its name will remain 'valid'.

Hope this helps
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