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## This line is saying "if the last exit code is NOT 'a selection was not found'" then print 'not found' ...
## which is the OPPOSITE of what you are saying you want
if [ $? -ne 1 ]; then
echo "Not found"
fi
In the future, please use the [code][/code] tags instead of screen grabs and links to other pages.
Interestingly, your first solution could have worked with a small tweak:
Code:
name=$1
if [[ -z "$name" ]]
then
echo -n "Enter a name to search for: "
read name # if user presses enter and name is blank this could cause problems
fi
output=$(grep -i "$name" phonebook)
if [[ -z "$output" ]]
then
echo "Name $name not in directory"
else
echo "$output"
fi
By moving the 'output' variable down, we negate the fact that the user might not enter a name at the command line. Either time the 'name' variable is blank will cause grep to wait for more input.
You could also place the request for a name in a loop until the user enters something. You may also wish to consider what happens if the user puts unusual characters in for a name.
Thanks for typing that out grail. I saw your post with the actual [code] tags, before you fixed it
I suppose if I were to continue making it as small as possible, while avoiding null inputs, I would do it this way:
Code:
name=$1
while [ -z "$name" ]; do
read -p "Enter a name to search for: " name
done
grep -i "$name" phonebook > /dev/null && echo "$name found" || echo "$name not found"
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