Escaping the * character in ksh.

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi All,

In ksh script i'm trying to assign "sqlstmt1" varaible value,

update VAREntryTb set VAR10num = VAR1num * Mltplr where BusD = '$val1' and RunI = 1"`

Hence i wrote below statement, the issue with this is shell is expanding "*" character adn thus subistuting it with the content of my present directory,

sqlstmt1=`echo "update VAREntryTb set VAR10num = VAR1num * Mltplr where BusD = '$val1' and RunI = 1"`

when i escape it with "\" like,
sqlstmt1=`echo "update VAREntryTb set VAR10num = VAR1num \* Mltplr where BusD = '$val1' and RunI = 1"`

then everything is fine except backward slash is also coming as part of whole string, something like,

update VAREntryTb set VAR10num = VAR1num \* Mltplr where BusD = '$val1' and RunI = 1

Can someone help me in getting the things right here ?

2

You don't need to backslash the asterisk inside double quotes; it will not be used for globbing when it's quoted.

3

But if i don't backslash it, then "*" is getting replaced with all the file name in present directory. Hope i'm clear with my question.

4

Try:

> val1=test
> set -f                                                                                         
> sqlstmt1="update VAREntryTb set VAR10num = VAR1num *  Mltplr where BusD = '$val1' and RunI = 1"
> echo $sqlstmt1                                                                                 
update VAREntryTb set VAR10num = VAR1num * Mltplr where BusD = 'test' and RunI = 1
> set +f
5

sqlstmt1="update VAREntryTb set VAR10num = VAR1num * Mltplr where BusD = '$val1' and RunI = 1"

Then put the variable sqlstmt1 in double quote

echo "$sqlstmt1"

the value of the variable varl1 will also get replaced.

6

If it's inside double quotes, it does not get replaced with all the file names in the present directory. Hope I'm clear with my answer.

7

Thanks all for the your help, both the above solution worked fine.

Even i was wondering why "*" is getting expanded even if put it in double quotes. The problem was with my coding only, as after setting the sqlstmt variable, i was writing it's content to file, like
echo $sqlstmt >> sqlfile.txt, so here lies the problem, as i changed it to echo "$sqlstmt" >> sqlfile.txt. And since i didn't turn off the "-x" flag i didn't got it noticed.

Also can you kindly give me brief discription, as what "set -f /+f " does ?

Thanks all for your help again.