UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello! I'd like some help with a sentance, this 'if' should take a string from the user, then search my list for that string, now only those lines that string is found should be worked on.

I'm new to this, but i'm guessing it's something like this..

Code:

           #!/bin/bash
           OPTIONS="opt1 opt2 opt3"
           select opt in $OPTIONS; do
               if [ "$opt" = "opt1" ]; then
                # how can I search the list for 'opt1' ?
               elif [ "$opt" = "opt2" ]; then
                # or 'opt2' ..
               elif [ "$opt" = "opt3" ]; then
                # or 'opt3' ..
               else
                clear
                echo bad option
               fi
           done

Maybe there's something better than an if sentance for this?
The file is a list of countrys and citys, like this:

Code:

Country: Sweden, City: Stockholm
Country: Sweden, City: Malmö
Country: Norway, City: Oslo
Country: Norway, City: Bergen

Let's call this file 'addresses' and, the options in the script could be country names, like Sweden or Norway, and if the user choses 'Norway' we would copy all 'addresses' with Norway, as Country

I hope you understand, and can find some time to help me! (and please, if you have a solution, try and explain it alittle, as I said, i'm new.. )

You should be using case statement for this...

hmm, okay, I will look at that. but it works almost the same way dont it?

and, how can I check the list, to see what's after "Country:" ?

To tell the truth I cant link your bit of script with what you are asking...
I dont see that n your script...
So what are option1 ... then?
If you are searching in a file, then grep is what you should use to sart with, then once found think if awk should not be prefered depending on what actions should follow...

I'm thinking, If option 1 is Norway, then when the user enters norway, everything in the list, that has the value 'Norway' as Country, gets copied to the new file.

What I need is a way to compare the users option with the value of 'country'.
Like

Code:

if [option1 = Country]; then
       copy to newlist

edit! and, it should do this on every line on the list, so maybe I need a for loop?

Use getopts (the bultin one ; getopt is an external) to parse arguments.
Once got familiar, it is very powerfull and helps alot in error handling/fetching

Search this Forum about it, has quite a lot threads on this Topic.

I suggest you write a script that accepts an input, lets call it OPT1, then grep that value in your file, and displays what is found.
Once that is achieved, You explain from the result what more you want...
So far for this script you need a read and grep , perhaps should we have an if if grep returns nothing...