For loop in bash using ls to get array of file names
 

So I have a group of files of the form:

cluster_1 cluster_2 cluster_3 etc


CLUSTERS="ls cluster_*"

for zzCLUSTER in $CLUSTERS
do
cat "${zzCLUSTERS}" | tr '/' ' ' | uniq | cat > "${zzCLUSTERS}".reads
done

but for some reason this isent working? I've looked at like 50 examples and I can't seem to get it to work. It says that I can't redirect

Correction, this is the code I have essentially

clusterlist="ls cluster_*"

for zzCLUSTERS in "$clusterlist"
do
cat "${zzCLUSTERS}" | tr '/' ' '| cat > "${zzCLUSTERS}".reads
done

the error I'm getting is

cat: ls cluster_*: No such file or directory

You can use:
for zzCLUSTER in cluster_*; do
...
done

instead of
CLUSTERS=$(ls cluster_*)

You used double quotes instead of backticks or the $(...) form.

Thank you thank you thank you!

So what is the difference between " " , ' ' , and ` ` in bash? When should each be used?

You can use:
for zzCLUSTER in cluster_*; do
...
done

instead of
CLUSTERS=$(ls cluster_*)

You used double quotes instead of backticks or the $(...) form.