String length in ksh

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi all,

I have tried the following simple code in ksh. (length.sh)

#! /usr/bin/ksh
var="xxxxxx0987890"
echo stringlength is ${#var}

but this gives me a error saying "length.sh: bad substitution"

Can some one please help me in resolving this.

2

Try command wc -c to count characters in the string.
Rgds.

3

That should work. What system on you on? What interactive shell are you using? What are the permissions on length.sh? What command line are you using to invoke length.sh?

4

I am using my school account remotely using ssh. Remaining of my scritps worked. but I dont know why this gives me an error. Will using the remote account cause restrictions in permissions...

5

The question still needs to be answered as to what shell you are using. The method you used to compute string length is correct for KSH.

What happens if /usr/bin/ksh is not present? It doesn't seem likely that it is since he stated that his remaining scripts do work. When I run sh on my system, I get the same error so it does appear that his default shell is sh and it does not support ${#var}.