Tech-Recipes - Latest Comments in Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

Daman Sternpak — Fri, 06 May 2011 13:53:32 -0000

I had the same exact problem and it drove me nutty batshiat-insane. The problem: you need a space before and after the = sign.

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

Man1 — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 11:48:48 -0000

== never works. bloody are you kidding by posting wrong things over here?

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

Bermic2003 — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 09:50:31 -0000

I do this by escaping less and greater sign, and it seems to work fine :

$> [ "a" \> "b" ]
$> echo $?
1
$> [ "c" \> "b" ]
$> echo $?
0

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

Tolya_kashuba — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 22:46:10 -0000

How can I compare two strings on less or greater? signs > and < treats as redirections!

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

qdideas — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 14:27:15 -0000

Thanks for the comments. Somehow this article fell off our radar and I didn't realize we had an issue with it. I really appreciate Martin for dropping me the email about the issue. The original tutorial has been updated.

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

Smudge — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 15:46:09 -0000

Wow, have you geeks ever thought about getting along?

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

Achu — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 05:57:51 -0000

both the commands are not working, it throwing an error
./hello: [one=one]: not found

( var value 'one')

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

Kousalya — Mon, 17 May 2010 05:51:12 -0000

you can compare two string variables using
if [ $var1 == $var2 ]
if [ $var1 = $var2 ]

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

Kousalya — Mon, 17 May 2010 05:42:10 -0000

you can compare two string variables using
if [ $var1 == $var2 ]

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

hema — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 08:40:47 -0000

Can a variable be compared with an another variable eg : if [[ $var1 == $var2 ]]

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

BhupinderSingh is a layer — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:20:10 -0000

You're lying. That dosen't work.
test: 40: ==: unexpected operator

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

netuddki — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:59:53 -0000

The correct solution is here a year ago. It should be corrected in the article too, so one won't try those for 10 minutes before finding the answer here.

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

Florin — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:35:45 -0000

This is the method i curently to test if a string is empty:

if [ "X${VAR}" = "X" ]; then
echo "Empty string"
fi

Testing for equality follows the same logic but without X.

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

asd — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:58:39 -0000

These examples don't work.

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

bhargav — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:15:41 -0000

if [ "$var" = "value" ]
then
echo not the same
fi

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:38:39 -0000

i believe the $var needs to be in quotes, like so:

if [ -z "$var" ];then
echo null
fi

Best Regards,
Kibokina

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

BhupinderSingh — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 00:43:20 -0000

this can also be used to compare 2 strings

s1 = "as"
s2 = "bs"

if test $s1 == $s2
then
echo s1 and s2 are equal
fi

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

guest — Thu, 04 Mar 2004 19:35:13 -0000

the following syntax is wrong

if [ $var == "" ] ......

because if the variable $var is empty the test is
if [ == "" ] and gives an error

you are obliged to quote the var :
if [ "$var" == "" ] ...

Sergio

Re: Bourne/bash shell scripts: string comparison

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 10:47:19 -0000

Wouldn't the following be better?

if [ -z $var ];then
echo null
fi