UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi everyone,

I have a question regarding for loops. I am writing a BASH shell script that will contain multiple loops. These loops all involve looping with a count:

for (( a=0; a <=10; a++ )); do
echo $a
done

If none of my multiple loops relate to each other throughout the script, is it a bad idea to use the same count variable for all of them for consistency (ie a)? Or should I use b for the next loop, c for the next, d, e, and so forth?

Once again, these variables (a,b,c ....) will only be used in their respective loops, and won't be used later on in the script.

Thanks,
Mike

As long as you set your counter back to 0 for each loop AND the loops are not within another loop it should be any problem. IMO

using small, criptic variable names is one of the worst thing you can do.

use "counter1" and "counter2" and so on
its easier to read, easier to debug, easy to remember

Unix will be ok with it, as long as the loops are not nested.

But... think of the next person who must work with the code. It can be difficult to track single letter variables - try doing a find for the letter a and see what I mean. Better to call it cnt, at the very least.
As far as unique names, again this is more of a preference for future editing or file error resolution. Thus, I will amend my previous from just cnt to cnt_1 or something similiar. That is quite easy to read, and any programmer would be able to follow.