ksh set -A negative value problem

[Muthukumar_5]

Hai All,

How can we use negative values on ksh shell arrays.

When I tried to use as,

TEST="-1 -2 -3"
set -A ARR $TEST
ksh: set: -1: unknown option

But it is working for,

TEST="1 -2 -3"
set -A ARR $TEST
echo ${ARR[0]} ${ARR[1]} ${ARR[2]}

But on sh, bash it will not be problem there.

Share you knowledge.

Thanks,
Muthu

[Mauro Gatti]

Reading man ksh it seems to be this limit:

"To assign values to an array, use set -A name value .... The value of all subscripts must be in the range of 0 through 1023."



RGDS

[Muthukumar_5]

Gatti,

that was good reference note.

But ksh shell array is supporting second, n index of array's with negative values there.?

Can we use any other method to index array values with negative values there.?

Thanks for your time.

[Michael Schulte zur Sur]

Hi,

have you tried TEST="\\-1 -2 -3"
?

greetings,

Michael

[Michael Schulte zur Sur · Accepted solution]

Hi,

my last answer did now work.
But this does it.
TEST="-- -1 -2 -3"
-- does signify end of options.

greetings,

Michael

[Mauro Gatti]

It is so strange...
I show my tries...
In effect:
$ ksh
$ unset PLUTO
$ set -A PLUTO "1" "2" "3"
$ echo ${PLUTO[0]} " " ${PLUTO[1]} " " ${PLUTO[2]}
1 2 3
$ unset PLUTO
$ set -A PLUTO "1" "-2" "3"
$ echo ${PLUTO[0]} " " ${PLUTO[1]} " " ${PLUTO[2]}
1 -2 3
$ unset PLUTO
$ set -A PLUTO "-1" "2" "3"
ksh: -1: bad option(s)

So it seems only the first value don't have a minus sign.

But look this strange behavior:

$ unset PLUTO
$ typeset -i PLUTO[0]=1
$ typeset -i PLUTO[1]=1
$ typeset -i PLUTO[2]=1
$ echo ${PLUTO[0]} " " ${PLUTO[1]} " " ${PLUTO[2]}
1 1 1
$ PLUTO[0]=${PLUTO[0]}-1
$ echo ${PLUTO[0]} " " ${PLUTO[1]} " " ${PLUTO[2]}
0 1 1
$ PLUTO[0]=${PLUTO[0]}-1
$ echo ${PLUTO[0]} " " ${PLUTO[1]} " " ${PLUTO[2]}
4294967295 1 1

So I think, when you try to assing
set -A PLUTO "-1" "2" "3"
or

set -A PLUTO "1" "-2" "3"
you assign a string value and not a numeric value.

[Mauro Gatti]

Using Michael method it seems to work fine:
$ unset PLUTO
$ set -A PLUTO "--" "-1" "2" "3"
$ echo $(( ${PLUTO[0]} - 1))
-2


:-)

[Muthukumar_5]

Thanks micheal. It is working.