ambiguous output using variables in bash
 

Hi,

i'm trying to write a simple bash script that parses information from all the *.kml files then saving it into csv files of the same name, this is what i have

#! /bin/bash
#author G wong

file1=$1

for file in *.kml ; do

outputname=$file1 | sed 's/.kml/.csv/g'

(cat $1| grep "<coordinate" | sed 's/<coordinates>// g' | sed 's/,0<\/coordinates>// g' | sed 's/\t//g' >> `$outputname`)

shift



however, it tells me that >> $outname is ambiguous, i've tried it without the grave symbols as well but with no avail, is there a way to use variables to specify a output name? thanks in advance

Hi,

And welcome to LQ!

What are you trying to achieve in the first place, and what are you passing
as the parameter to the script?


Cheers,
Tink

With out anything to test it, I can only make some assumptions.

I see what you are trying to do with outputname, but try this:
anything wrapped in `` will execute the command, and then use its value. VAR=`echo hi` is the same as VAR="hi"

You don't need to put the last $outputname in those quotes because its not a command anymore. We already executed it at the top. This will execute the command each time it loops.

I assume you want to dump all your changes into a .csv file instead of a .kml file, so in the echo command you should use $x instead of $file1 ($1) which is only one file (or maybe many with *.something, but that would be redundant), not each of the .kml files you are using.

Also, I assume you are going to want to cat each file and in the loop and save it as a .csv, you will need to use the $x instead of $1 to do that.

You can use anything in place of $x, it's just standard practice for me. $file would work too, but i don't like using it because its a command (not that it will hurt anything).

You may need "" around $x if you have problems. You can also use them around the entire echo command like this: "`echo $x | sed 's|.kml|.csv|g'`" command

Last note, you can use anything in sed for a divider, as long as its the same. Not using / helps to not have to use a \ every time you have something you need to cancel.

can also be
or