Script Question

[Shannon_1]

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

[Rodney Hills]

Try-

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

-- Rod Hills

[Jeffrey Davis_1]

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

[Anthony deRito]

#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.

[Rajeev Tyagi]

echo $string | wc -c

[hpuxrox]

echo "12345" | wc -c

Then minus 1

[MANOJ SRIVASTAVA]

Hi Shannon

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


Manoj Srivastava

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Another method:

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

[Duncan Edmonstone]

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

[Rodney Hills]

Duncan's answer is correct.

I bad.

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

Good call Duncan...

-- Rod Hills

[hpuxrox]

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

#echo $STRING_NUM
7

[David Burgess]

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

Regards,

Dave.

[John Palmer]

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

[harry d brown jr]

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

[Magdi KAMAL]

Hi Shannon,

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

Magdi