Programming Forums - String Substiution. Whitespace?

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String Substiution. Whitespace?

Hi all! :D

I've got a little bash script that basically takes my directory path to the "My Documents" folder. Instead of the space, I've inserted a special sequence that I want replaced with "\ " so that I can cd into that directory. However, I get an interesting result.

Here's the Script:

#!/bin/bash

MYDIR=/users/cs/study/gordon/MyxyXYWhitespacEYXyxDocuments

MYDIR=${MYDIR//xyXYWhitespacEYXyx/\\\ }

echo $MYDIR

cd $MYDIR

ls

Here's the output when I run my file:

/users/cs/study/gordon/My\ Documents

./test: line 5: cd: /users/cs/study/gordon/My\: No such file or directory

So the echo shows that the "\ " was put into the variable, but when I try and cd into it, it cuts off at the "My\". Does the string substitution put in something unique instead of just a whitespace? Am I using this correctly?

Thanks in advance for any insight. :D

Try this:

#!/bin/bash

MYDIR="./My Dir"

echo $MYDIR

cd "$MYDIR"

ls

Was there a particular reason that you were avoiding the use of the space in the directory name? If not, this will work out for you.

Ah ha! The quotes MegaArcon! The quotes! Why thank you Infinite Recursion. Looking at your code helped to spark what I was missing. Instead of subbing in "\ " I can just sub in " " and surround my variable with double quotes for the cd.

New code:

#!/bin/bash

MYDIR=/users/cs/study/gordon/MyxyXYWhitespacEYXyxDocuments

MYDIR=${MYDIR//xyXYWhitespacEYXyx/ }

echo $MYDIR

cd "$MYDIR"

ls

New output:

/users/cs/study/gordon/My Documents

Desktop    My Pictures        foo.doc

Ah, good ol' bash. Thanks again. :D