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Is this a typo in my Book?

 
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# 1  
Old 05-05-2012
Is this a typo in my Book?
I'm currently learning Bash scripting from a book and the following example is given, but I think there is a typo in the variable assignment for the variable file.

Code:
$ cat test5
 #!/bin/bash
 # reading values from a file
 
 file=“states”    ( shouldn't this be file=`cat states` assuming you have a 
                        text file with the list , doesn't this just assign the single 
                        string states? )
 for state in ‘cat $file’
 do
 echo “Visit beautiful $state”
 done
 $ cat states
 Alabama
 Alaska
 Arizona
 Arkansas
 Colorado
 Connecticut
 Delaware
 Florida
 Georgia
 $ ./test5
 Visit beautiful Alabama
 Visit beautiful Alaska
 Visit beautiful Arizona
 Visit beautiful Arkansas
 Visit beautiful Colorado
 Visit beautiful Connecticut
 Visit beautiful Delaware
 Visit beautiful Florida
 Visit beautiful Georgia
 $

Am I missing something here?
Last edited by fpmurphy; 05-05-2012 at 11:04 AM.. Reason: code tags please!
# 2  
Old 05-05-2012
No, the book is right.
Code:
file=“states”

A another way go get the same output is:
Code:
file=“states”    
while read state
do
     echo “Visit beautiful $state”
done < $file

# 3  
Old 05-05-2012
No quotes are needed in this case: file=states would suffice, but they won't hurt if they are the right double quotes, which is not the case here “” vs. ""
# 4  
Old 05-05-2012
Thank you for the quick replies.

Why does
Code:
file="states"

not assign the single string states as the value for the variable like usual?

I tried testing this on the command line and the value assigned to $file is indeed the word states, not the contents of the states file.
Last edited by Riker1204; 05-05-2012 at 11:32 AM..
# 5  
Old 05-05-2012
You are using are the wrong kind of double quotes. Either you copied it from somewhere instead of typing it at the keyboard, or typed it in Microsoft Word or something.
Code:
$ file=“states”      # these are the wrong quotes
$ echo "$file"
“states”
$ file="states"      # these are the right quotes
$ echo "$file"
states

# 6  
Old 05-05-2012
So if you have a file named states and you type the following:
Code:
file=states

The contents of the states file is assigned to $file? or just the string states?

Sorry, very confused Smilie

To me it seems the output should be
Code:
$./test5
Visit beautiful states

# 7  
Old 05-05-2012
Just the string states
 
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