Stuck on a Homework question

camaroblue87 · 05-05-2006, 04:21 PM

Ok i have a file named directory that contains this:

Computer Science 163 William St
Biology 1 New Plaza
Graduate Center 1 Smith Ave

And i am suposed to write a script that will take a department as a parameter and say if it is a match or not here is what i have so far.

Code:

#!/bin/sh
grep $1 directory
if(grep -w $1 `grep $1 directory` )
then
    echo there is a match
else
    echo no such department
fi

the problem is that grep returns the whole line and i dont know how to compare that to the parameter. like if i did

search "Biology"
grep "Biology" would return (Biology 1 New Plaza)

i think i need the if statment to compare like this
ie: if("Biology" = "Biology")

any ideas? thanks

ataraxia · 05-05-2006, 04:37 PM

Code:

#!/bin/sh
if(grep -q "$1" directory )
then
    echo there is a match
else
    echo no such department
fi

Quote your $1 in case there is a space in it.
"-q" for grep means "just say if it worked, don't print anything".

camaroblue87 · 05-06-2006, 09:52 AM

Thanks so much that worked great!