Hello,

Firstly yes I could do this in Perl. However I am trying to only use Bash...

Should be simple ...


I have a list of variables in an array which follow the format NUMBER_NAME (i.e. Number Underscore Name).

I am trying to get just the number and the underscore and assign it to a variable.


I have tried this:

NEWNAME=$(echo ${anarray[$a]} | grep [0-9]_ ${anarray[$a]})

Here ${anarray[$a]} holds the initial variable with number_name.




This:

#NEWNAME=$(echo grep '[0-9]_' "${anarray[$a]}")

and this:

grep '[0-9]_' "${anarray[$a]}" > NEWNAME


As you can see I am a bit confused.

In Perl I would simply do a little regex and catch what I wanted in a $N and then swap things around, SIMPLE! I can't figure this one out. I know what I want, just not the mechanics. Any ideas?

Try 'grep -o [0-9]_' or "sed -e 's/\([0-9]_\).*/\1/'"

Hmmmm, ok. I'm trying your grep suggestion.


NEWNAME=$(echo grep -o [0-9]_ ${anarray[$a]})


Any ideas why this does not work?

I have tried various combinations of "" and '' etc. but I do not quite understand. Basically I want the matched Number and Underscore assigned to NEWNAME...

When I use quotes it just outputs grep -o etc. If I leave them out it says Command Not Found....


Thankyou for your help so far.



Max.

Why echo? You need only grep!

Sorry, I thought you needed echo.


Ok


NEWNAME=$(grep -o [0-9]_ ${anarray[$a]})


Still nothing. All I get is

"grep: 1_Valuename: No such file or directory"



Any further clues ...

You could use either
echo ${anarray[$a]} | grep -o '[0-9]_'
or
grep -o '[0-9]_' <<< ${anarray[$a]}

Worked!


NEWNAME=$(echo ${anarray[$a]} | grep -o '[0-9][0-9]_')



Thankyou! I really appreciate it.



Max.