CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bash
Splendid
Splendid

Reputation: 53

Check that user entered three file names as input

I have never done shell scripting before and need some help with a small project.

I want a user to enter three file names and check that the user has input THREE names and give an error if its more or less. The files will be sorted into another file but that is working fine just having problem with checking what the user has entered.

I have tried

echo Please select the three files you want to use
read $file1 $file2 $file3

if ! [ $# -eq 3 ]; then
   echo "Please enter THREE values"
fi

Upvotes: 2

Views: 120

Answers (2)

Johannes Weiss
Johannes Weiss

Reputation: 54081

Without changing your read command:

if [ -z "$file1" -o -z "$file2" -o -z "$file3" ]; then
    echo "Please enter THREE values"
fi

But the preferred way is using arrays here:

read -a files
if [ ! ${#files[@]} -eq 3 ]; then
    echo "Please enter THREE values"
fi

And btw. the elements are ${files[0]}, ${files[1]} and ${files[2]} or, you could loop the array:

for f in "${files[@]}"; do
    echo $f
done

Upvotes: 3

DejanLekic
DejanLekic

Reputation: 19797

You did well, the only problem is the use of $ in your read statement. Remove dollars and your code will work:

#!/bin/sh

echo "Please select the three files you want to use"
read file1 file2 file3

#Or something like:
#echo -n "File 1:"
#read file1
#echo -n "File 2:"
#read file2
#echo -n "File 3:"
#read file3

echo "File 1: $file1  File 2 : $file2  File 3 : $file3"

Upvotes: 0

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