script query

[Ravinder Singh Gill]

Hi guys can anybody spot the problem with the following query?

while read SURNAME FIRSTNAME
do
typeset -l SNAME=$SURNAME | cut -c1-5

while [ ${#SNAME} -lt 5 ]
do
SNAME=$SNAME"a"
done

typeset -l FNAME=$FIRSTNAME | cut -c1

UNAME=`echo $SNAME$FNAME`
do
echo $UNAME
done
done < file1.txt


Basically from a list of names I am trying to create a list of Unames (first 5 characters of surname and first initial - "a" is used as padding if surname is less than 5 characters). I am using file1.txt for this. A sh -xvf shows the following:

while read SURNAME FIRSTNAME
do
typeset -l SNAME=$SURNAME | cut -c1-5

while [ ${#SNAME} -lt 5 ]
do
SNAME=$SNAME"a"
done

typeset -l FNAME=$FIRSTNAME | cut -c1

UNAME=`echo $SNAME$FNAME`
do
createuname.sh: Syntax error at line 14 : `do' is not expected.

[RAC_1]

set -vx and run script. It will tell you where it is erroring out.

[Ravinder Singh Gill]

how do i set that? can you give an example please

[Muthukumar_5]

You can use like this,


UNAME=`echo $SNAME$FNAME`
do
echo $UNAME
done
done < file1.txt

hth.

[Muthukumar_5]

You cannot use like this,


UNAME=`echo $SNAME$FNAME`
do
echo $UNAME
done
done < file1.txt

hth.

[Muthukumar_5]

sorry for typo(s) :)

Try as,

while read SURNAME FIRSTNAME
do
typeset -l SNAME=$SURNAME | cut -c1-5

while [ ${#SNAME} -lt 5 ]
do
SNAME=$SNAME"a"
done

typeset -l FNAME=$FIRSTNAME | cut -c1

UNAME=`echo $SNAME$FNAME`
echo $UNAME

done < file1.txt

It will work.

[Muthukumar_5]

Really bad today :(.

Try this:

while read SURNAME FIRSTNAME
do

typeset -l SNAME=$(echo $SURNAME | cut -c1-5)

if [ ${#SNAME} -lt 5 ]
then
SNAME=$SNAME"a"
fi

typeset -l FNAME=$(echo $FIRSTNAME | cut -c1)

UNAME=`echo "$SNAME$FNAME"`
echo $UNAME

done < file1.txt

It will work.

hth.

[Ravinder Singh Gill]

i did as above and still getting problems. when i did sh -xvf on it, it gave me output like the following:

+ read SURNAME FIRSTNAME
+ cut -c1-5
+ echoAncliff
createuname.sh[3]: echoAncliff: not found.
+ typeset -l SNAME=
+ [ 0 -lt 5 ]
+ SNAME=a
+ cut -c1
+ typeset -l FNAME=Gillian
+ + echo a
UNAME=a
+ echo a
a
+ read SURNAME FIRSTNAME
+ cut -c1-5
+ echoAnderson
createuname.sh[3]: echoAnderson: not found.
+ typeset -l SNAME=
+ [ 0 -lt 5 ]
+ SNAME=a
+ cut -c1
+ typeset -l FNAME=Jean
+ + echo a
UNAME=a
+ echo a
a
+ read SURNAME FIRSTNAME
+ cut -c1-5
+ echoAnderson

[john korterman · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I think you are missing af space in between echo and a variable name in this line:

echo $SURNAME

regards,
John K.

[Ravinder Singh Gill]

thanks hth & John, that has solved half of my problem.

I am now getting the first five letters of their surname (all in lowercase as required) but their first initial is not being appended ie i am getting an output of adams rather then adamsc etc.

Any suggestions?

[Hein van den Heuvel]

One possible alternative solution in perl:


$perl -pe '($s,$f)=split; $_=substr(lc($s)."aaaa",0,5) . substr($f,0,1) . "\n"' x.txt

---gives---
aapjen
miesjt
vuuraz
jetjek

--- from x.txt ----
aapjes noot
MIEsje teun
vuur zus
jetje kees

fwiw,
Hein.

[john korterman]

Hi again,

Muthukumar's code works allright on my system, e.g. if the content of file1 is
Gill Ravinder
the script outputs
gillar

check variable spelling...

regards,
John K.

[Ravinder Singh Gill]

Thanks guys I realised my mistake. Just one more thing. One of the Surnames is only three characters long and this only appended "a" to the surname once, hence uname was only 5 characters long rather then 6. How would I amend the loop to fix this?

[Ravinder Singh Gill]

Guys thanks for your help. I just replaced the if loop with a while loop and it works fine.

[Ravinder Singh Gill]

Guys thanks for your help. I just replaced the if loop with a while loop and it works fine.