UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi guys,

I am very much a new unix user so please be nice.

I have a problem that I am trying to solve and I hope you can help.

I am trying to create a script that asks a user to make a choice of his favoritre sweets from a menu of 3. The user then must choose from 3 .txt files to recieve further information. unitll he chooses the appropriate .txt file in accordance to the sweet he will recieve an error msg.

So...

The program displays a menu asking the user to choose from three different sweets. (Snickers, Twix and bounty).

Code:

echo 
echo "1) $Sweet1"
echo 
echo "2) $Sweet2"
echo 
echo "3) $Sweet3"
echo   

echo "Please enter the code of your chosen module: \c"
read SWEET_CHOICE

while [ $SWEET_CHOICE != $sweet1 ] && [ $SWEET_CHOICE != $sweet2 ] && [ $SWEET_CHOICE != $sweet3 ]
do
echo ""
echo "Invalid choice. Please enter your chosen sweet again:"
read SWEET_CHOICE

Once I have an appropriate choice stored in the variable SWEET_CHOICE. I need the program to display three file names (Already created called snickers twix bounty) after the user types the file name, if the file name is correct the contents will be displayed. If the user types the wrong file the program will promt for him/her to try again untill they pick the appropriate file.


Any help with this second part would be hugely appreciated. I would appreciate any ideas in script or in theory, so dont hessitate to shout at me for being stupid!

Kind regards

Si

This sounds like homework....

probably is, but at least he's offered up a sense of direction...

SDKC: Once you've read the forum rules, and promise not to dump assignments on the unsuspecting samaritans on the site ever again, you'd probably get familiar with the search facility in the upper right-hand corner. You'll find loads of menu-style prompt scripts scattered around the site...in various states of disrepair.

Irrelevant. Homework questions should be posted in the appropriate forum. It's there for a reason.

Good point.

See that, scottn? Only two posts and he's already on his way to being a good citizen of the forum... Some folks aren't so quick to grasp the value of the generosity that is this site.

SDKC: Ignore the extraneous parts of this link's thread, such as color-coding, n/curses, etc, and you'll see pretty much the same thing as your target. Forget the candy options, abstract them into whatever and you've empiricized your task that much further...which, after all, is really all you're going to need to succeed. Boil it down and tackle it with the right set of tools. https://www.unix.com/shell-programmin...nu-script.html

Hope this helps and good luck.

I am certainly not looking to waste anyones time, it is indeed one of the final sections of my coursework.

I was really just looking for direction, an idea perhaps of how I could resolve the question.

I appreciate your help, I shall begin searching menu's and cross fingers I am able to find some examples that may come in handy.

Kind regards

Si

As worded people would choose menu option 1/2/3 rather than type the name.

This script illustrates how to let the user enter the value again within a do-done loop and incorporates a simple way of exiting that loop with "break".
It is not a full solution because my data files were called 1.txt, 2,txt, 3.txt , and my menu options are not variables, and the my prompt message is different ... etc..

Code:

#!/bin/ksh
while true
do
     echo 
     echo "1) snickers"
     echo
     echo "2) twix"
     echo
     echo "3) bounty"
     echo

     echo "Please enter your chosen sweet: \c"
     read SWEET_CHOICE

     # Exit on null input
     if [ "${SWEET_CHOICE}""X" = "X" ]
     then
           break
     fi

     # Test for valid options
     if [ -f "${SWEET_CHOICE}.txt" ]
     then
         cat "${SWEET_CHOICE}.txt"
         break
     else
         echo "Invalid choice."
     fi
done