topic Re: Script Question in Operating System - HP-UX

Script Question

Shannon_1 — Wed, 01 May 2002 13:32:29 GMT

Using the Bourne shell is there a command to
find the length of a string?

Re: Script Question

Rodney Hills — Wed, 01 May 2002 13:34:47 GMT

Try-

x="abcdef"
echo ${#x}
6

-- Rod Hills

Re: Script Question

Jeffrey Davis_1 — Wed, 01 May 2002 13:34:56 GMT

Hi. Try this: echo $PWD | wc -m

Re: Script Question

Anthony deRito — Wed, 01 May 2002 13:34:58 GMT

#man wc

wc recognizes the following command-line options:

-c Write to the standard output the number of bytes in
each input file.

-m Write to the standard output the number of characters
in each input file.

-w Write to the standard output the number of words in
each input file.

-l Write to the standard output the number of newline
characters in each input file.

Re: Script Question

Rajeev Tyagi — Wed, 01 May 2002 13:35:53 GMT

echo $string | wc -c

Re: Script Question

hpuxrox — Wed, 01 May 2002 13:37:29 GMT

echo "12345" | wc -c

Then minus 1

Re: Script Question

MANOJ SRIVASTAVA — Wed, 01 May 2002 13:39:28 GMT

Hi Shannon

What about wc -c , where in it counts the no. of bytes in the input .

Manoj Srivastava

Re: Script Question

A. Clay Stephenson — Wed, 01 May 2002 13:43:39 GMT

Another method:

S1="This is a test"
LEN=`expr length "${S1}"`

Re: Script Question

Duncan Edmonstone — Wed, 01 May 2002 13:46:34 GMT

Hi,

Rodneys method works fine if you mean to use the posix shell (/usr/bin/sh on HP-UX). The *real* bourne shell on HP-UX is in /usr/old/bin/sh. Posix shells aren't available on all flavours of UNIX so if you *really* want to use the bourne shell then the methods using wc will work fine - but remember that wc will include the new line from the echo command in the output so you will always get the length of your string plus one unless you tell echo not to include the newline:

# /usr/old/bin/sh
# x="1234"
# echo ${#x}
bad substitution
# exit

# x="1234"
# echo ${#x}
4
# echo $x | wc -m
5
# echo "$x\c" | wc -m
4

HTH

Duncan

Re: Script Question

Rodney Hills — Wed, 01 May 2002 13:49:50 GMT

Duncan's answer is correct.

I bad.

I started /usr/bin/sh and forgot it was posix.

Good call Duncan...

-- Rod Hills

Re: Script Question

hpuxrox — Wed, 01 May 2002 13:50:09 GMT

$YOUR_STRING=1234567
$STRING_NUM=`echo "$YOUR_STRING\c" | wc -c`

#echo $STRING_NUM
7

Re: Script Question

David Burgess — Wed, 01 May 2002 13:50:31 GMT

a=$(echo hello | wc -c)
((a=a-1))
echo $a
5

Regards,

Dave.

Re: Script Question

John Palmer — Wed, 01 May 2002 13:54:45 GMT

The ${#} construct is by far the most efficient because it is evaluated by the shell itself rather than calling a seperate process.

Bear in mind however that it is not valid in the real Bourne shell (/usr/old/bin/sh). You're not using that are you?

Regards,
John

Re: Script Question

harry d brown jr — Wed, 01 May 2002 14:00:11 GMT

Shannon,

Try this:

$ DAH1="this is a test"
$ echo $DAH1
this is a test
$ echo ${#DAH1}
14
$

If it works you are really using the posix shell. The bourne shell in 10+ is in /usr/old/bin. The bourne shell still exists for older scripts, and should be "ported" to the posix shell.

live free or die
harry

Re: Script Question

Magdi KAMAL — Wed, 01 May 2002 14:24:58 GMT

Hi Shannon,

# var=0123456789
# echo ${#var}
10

Magdi