Assigning multiple variables in ksh script

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Is it possible to have a user input multiple words in one line and have the script assign each word a variable? I'm stuck please assist.

Example using "BILL JOHN SARA JILL" as what the user could type:

printf "Enter account names: "      BILL JOHN SARA JILL  
read input
2

Hi You could try the following,

IFS=' '
echo -e "Input Variables:-\c"
while read W X Y Z
do
echo ${W};echo ${X};echo ${Y};echo ${Z}
done

Let me know how you get on.

Regards

Dave

3

That worked! Thanks Dave :slight_smile:

Is there also a way to set a limit to the number of variables the user can enter?

4

Hi,

The script will append the fourth and any further space separated entries as a single variable, you could dispense with excess data simply by incorporating a simple line like.

IFS=' '
echo -e "Input Variables:-\c"
while read W X Y Z
Z=`echo ${Z} | awk '{ print $1 }'`
do
echo ${W};echo ${X};echo ${Y};echo ${Z}
done

Not elegant, but it should do the job.

Regards

Dave

5

Hi,
Another solution with array:

set -A TAB $(read && echo $REPLY)
i=0
echo "Nb arguments = ${#TAB[*]}"
while (( $i < ${#TAB[*]} ))
do
echo ${TAB[$i]}
let i="i + 1"
done

Regards.

6

Thanks again! One last question...I'm trying to understand the read command a little better. Is there an option where it reads only what the user inputs? Let me give an example of what i mean. Lets say the user inputs DOOR. I understand the read command will assign the value to the varable to "DOOR". But when I use that variable to search other files named "DOOR" it will return "DOOR" and "DOOR2ND". How can I make it to only return "DOOR"? Any insight will be greatly appreciated.

7

Hi,

Here the problem is some what changed and is more dependent on how you search the file, so it is difficult to take a stab at this without knowing that information.

Post what you have already tried.

Regards

Dave

8

Here is part of the script that is giving me issues...

printf "Enter Account name: "
read Answer

        #Print blanket cancel working directory and process id
        echo BLANKET CANCEL:
        echo $(date +'%c')
        ps -e -o pid,args | grep "phantom EORD.BLANKET.CANCEL" | grep -v grep | while read pid command
        do
                ln=`procwdx $pid`
                echo "$ln" | grep -q "${Answer}" && echo "$ln" && ps -ef | grep $pid | grep -v grep | sed -e 's/^[ \t]*//'
        done
	echo

Script results:

Enter Account name: NAIB

BLANKET CANCEL:
Wed Sep 24 08:26:59 EDT 2014
8585430:        /home/HKUNAIB/
root  8585430        1   0   Sep 04      -  0:04 phantom EORD.BLANKET.CANCEL
8978610:        /home/NAIB/
root  8978610        1   0   Sep 16      -  0:19 phantom EORD.BLANKET.CANCEL

In this script I dont want it to display "HKUNAIB". Please advise

9

You can use:

grep -w

---------- Post updated at 07:53 AM ---------- Previous update was at 07:38 AM ----------

There's stuff in your script which can be changed such as redundant grep's etc.

Just looking at the pertinent points though, I would imagine that you would want something like this in replace of your first two lines (the printf and read):

max=5; set --
while [[ ($# -eq 0) || ($# -gt $max) ]] ; do
        print "Please enter no more than $max account names: "
        read -r input; set -- ${input} 
        IFS='|'; RE="$*"
done

Then instead of:

grep -q "${Answer}"

You can use:

egrep -qw "${RE}"
10

Looks good now. Thank you all!!!! :slight_smile: