Re: [PLUG] bash, double for

[Dan Crosta <dcrosta@sccs.swarthmore.edu>]

Paul L. Snyder wrote:

>Quoting "Michael C. Toren" <mct@toren.net>:
>
>  
>
>>On Thu, May 19, 2005 at 02:04:31PM -0400, Dan Crosta wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>   n=`echo "$n + 1" | bc`
>>>      
>>>
>>You can use bash's $((..)) arithmetic substitution.  For example:
>>
>>	echo $((n++))
>>    
>>
>
>One thing that can be confusing to aspiring shell progammers:
>
>  bash$ n=3
>  bash$ n=$((n++))
>  bash$ echo $n
>  3
>
>What happened here?  The trick is that '++' is the postincrement
>operator, which works via side-effects. So what's really happening is:
>
>  1.  bash reads in the command "n=3" and stores '3' in the parameter 'n'.
>  2a. bash reads in the command "n=$((n++))"
>  2b. bash performs arithmetic expansion on the command.  '++' means "do
>      something with this variable, then increment it.  So bash replaces
>      the command-line with "n=3" (the current value of n) and behind
>      the scenes it increases the value store in 'n' by 1, so now '4' is
>      stored in 'n'.
>  2c. bash executes the command "n=3", which stores '3' in 'n'.  Whoops!
>  3a. bash reads in the command "echo $n".
>  3b. bash performs parameter expansion on the command, which is now
>      "echo 3"
>  3c. bash executes the command, echoing '3' to the output.
>
>Here's a way around that if you just want to increment a variable:
>
>  bash$ : $((n++))
>
>The ':' is the null-command.  It's often used when you just want to expand
>the arguments and not do anything with them.  In mct's example above, if
>n=3, then the command will output '3' and change the value stored in 'n'
>to '4' as a side-effect.
>
>  bash$ echo $((++n))
>
>may be less confusing, as it changes the value store in 'n' before it
>does anything else with it.
>
>pls
>___________________________________________________________________________
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>  
>
if anyone's confused, just imagine what would happen in C (or your
favorite language) if you did:

n = 3;
n = n++;

it does the same thing. took me a while to realize the same stuff is
going on here.

dsc
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
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