I'm writing a bash script where I will have a different amount of variables depending on another parameter.

So if parameter a=5, I'll need var1-5, but if a=3 I only need var1-3.

My inclination is to set this up in a for loop, and have the loop go from 1-5, each time setting the value of var$a. However, I have found that bash doesn't like it when you use a variable on the left side of the equals sign.

I am fairly new to bash, but I can't imagine this is impossible. I'm not so familiar with arrays in bash, and feel like that will probably end up being the answer.

Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks so much.

-JAH

You can do this:

1 members found this post helpful.

You can use eval, but its not generally recommended.
I'd probably store all the values for 'var1->however many' in an array, and then just pull them out depending on the setting of the ctrl var.
See http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/arrays.html

and generally bookmark these
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz
http://tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-G...tml/index.html
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks guys