Help with A script

1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data:
   I have to make a script that will copy the contents of a already created folder to 3 others that are not created yet. The problem is that I cant create them so i get an error message for the folders that dont exist. If the total files are not 4 display an error message

2. Relevant commands, code, scripts, algorithms:
   cp ,echo ,read ,if

3. The attempts at a solution (include all code and scripts):

if ( test $# -eq 4)
echo "Enter 4 files"
read $1 $2 $3 $4
then
touch $2
touch $3
otuch $4
cp $1 $2
cp $1 $3
cp $1 $4
else echo " Need exactly four parameters, sorry. "
fi

4. Complete Name of School (University), City (State), Country, Name of Professor, and Course Number (Link to Course):
   PAPI , Chania ,Greece, Varos CS1111

1. The lines which I've coloured red are contradictory. $1, $2, $3.... are positional parameters. You can't read values into them that way.
2. Your requirement was to create directories, not files, right? touch is used to change a file's access and modification time. If file doesn't exist, it creates them.
3. Try the below script. Let us know if you have any questions.
4. Please use code tags.

$ cat test.sh
#! /bin/bash

echo "Enter 4 dir names (1st is source. Next 3 are target dirs): "
read a b c d

for x in $b $c $d
do
    if [ ! -d $x ]
    then
        mkdir $x
        cp -r ./$a/* ./$x/
    else
        cp -r ./$a/* ./$x/
    fi
done
$
$ ./test.sh
Enter 4 dir names (1st is source. Next 3 are target dirs):
test test1 test2 test3
$
$ ls -l
drw-r--r-- 3 root root   4096 Jan 24 06:27 test
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root   4096 Feb  2 04:55 test1
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root   4096 Feb  2 04:55 test2
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root   4096 Feb  2 04:55 test3

'test' was an already existing dir. test1, test2, test3 are newly created dirs, which contains all of the data contained in 'test'

Goodmorning and thanks for the fast response

I have to copy the first named file to three target files as simple as possible

#! /bin/bash

if [ $# -ne 4 ]  # If number of positional parameters are not equal to 4,
then             # Print warn msg and exit.
    echo "Need exactly 4 parameters. Exiting."
    exit
fi

for x in $2 $3 $4
do
    if [ -e $x ] # If target file exists, delete it.
    then         # Even otherwise, cp would overwrite it.
        rm -f $x # Some systems have an alias for cp as "cp -i".
    fi           # So cp would prompt the user if the target file needs can be over-written.
    cp $1 $x     # Same thing is achieved here by deleting and creating a fresh copy.
done

How to use:

$./test.sh src.txt tgt1.txt tgt2.txt tgt3.txt
$
$ ls -l *.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12 Feb  2 12:46 src.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12 Feb  2 12:46 tgt1.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12 Feb  2 12:46 tgt2.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12 Feb  2 12:46 tgt3.txt

I found the solution for the problem
The following code was the correct for me

touch a1
if (test $# -eq 4)
echo " Enter 1 source file and 3 target files"
read a1 a2 a3 a4
then
cp $a1 $a2
cp $a1 $a3
cp $a1 $a4
else echo " Need exactly four parameters, sorry. "
fi

Could you please explain the above code? I'm so eager to learn shell scripting.

No point learning about this one.
The parameter count checking bit of the script does not work at all.
if (test $# -eq 4) does nothing except execute an irrelevant "test" in a subshell and ignore the result (which is good I suppose because $# has value zero at that moment).
The script collapses in a heap of "cp" errors if you just press return in response to the question.