UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I am having a problem with the following statement in a korn shell script:

if "$all_recs" = "ALL"; then

commands

fi;

I keep getting the error syntax error at line 999 : 'then' unmatched.

I'm sure it is a minor problem, but have been unable to find any answers online. Any help would be appreciated. Also appreciated are any good online sources for korn shell scripting.

Thanks,

Amber Taylor

You should enclose your if statement in square brackets:

Code:

if [ "$all_recs" = "ALL" ]
then
	commands
fi

Thank you for your response.


I made the changes you suggested and now I have the syntax error at line 999 : 'if' unmatched. Now the statement looks like:

if ["$all_recs" = "NEW"] then

commands

fi;

Also, I am coding behind someone and many of the if statements they used do not have the []'s around them. They are formatted like:

if test $# -ne 3;
then

commands

fi;

--or--

if test $file_ext = "file_ext";
then
continue;
fi;

Why would they above work, but not the one I did?

Thanks Again,

Amber Taylor

The answer is simple: you either use the test construction -or- square brackets. Also to keep coding simple and avoid having to use semicolons all the the time to delimit commands, put the several components of the if-then-else-fi construct on separate lines:

Code:

if [ condition ]
then
       command 1
else
       command 2
fi

In your case, you were missing a semicolon just before the 'then'

The use of square brackets is another way
of using the "test" command. Note on the
square brackets... You must have a white
space after the open bracket and before the
close bracket: [ "$somevar" = "somestring" ]

The code: if "$all_recs" = "ALL"; then

...neither had the "test" nor the [ ] and you
need one OR the other.

Now I am getting the 'then' unmatched again.

Here is exactly what the statement looks like:

if [ "$all_recs" = "NEW" ]
then

# Flush the staging table
echo "=== Cleaning the staging table..."
sqlplus -s $connect_string > /dev/null << EOF
begin
iws_clean_staging_pkg.iws_clean_staging_prc;
end;
/
EOF
fi;


Is there a man entry for the if statement? If so, what keyword is it under?

Thanks,

Amber Taylor

Also, $all_recs is a command line argument. I don't know if that makes a difference. Thank you for your earlier reply, I would have never known that spaces were needed inside the brackets!

Regards,

Amber Taylor