Bash (if..then) error

[Felipevd]

Hey guys, I was doing some basic bash shell script, as I am new to this, and I can't seem to pass over this error. Here is the code:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Please, type in the day of the week."
read Day

if (($Day="Monday"));then
Monday=date +%d
Tuesday=$(($Lunes+1))
Wednesday=$(($Martes+1))
Thursday=$(($Miercoles+1))
Friday=$(($Jueves+1))
Saturday=$(($Viernes+1))
Sunday=$(($Sabado+1))
else
echo "As updates only occur on Monday, an update will not be necessary yet."
fi

echo "Today date is: "; date +%A,%d" of "%B,%Y
echo "To-do list:"

Anyways, my intention is that If I type Monday, the variables would be assigned, but even if I type Monday, bash interprets it like if I had typed something else, and give me the "As updates only occur on Monday, an update will not be necessary yet." message. Any suggestion? Thanks!

[JeoSaurus]

Hello Felipevd!

The problem is actually pretty simple. When doing an 'if' comparison, you want to use square brackets [] instead of parens:

...
if [ $Day="Monday" ]; then
...

I noticed some other issues that you'll probably see after the if statement is 'fixed'.

When you want to execute code in the context of setting a variable, you will need to put it in either:

`backticks`
(the little mark that usually shares the ~tilde key)

OR this notation with the dollar sign and parentheses:

$(some commands here)

I prefer the second method. So for example, your "Monday=date +%d" should be:

...
Monday=$(date +%d)
...

I hope this helps!

[Felipevd]

Thank you so much, the code and tips gave me the solution to my problem, but off course, as in programming, more trouble emerges. Now, I have advanced a little in my script, and now, another error is shown. Here is the code:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Please, type in the day of the week."
read Day

if [ $Day="Monday" ];then
Monday=$(date +%d)
Tuesday=$(($Lunes+1))
Wednesday=$(($Martes+1))
Thursday=$(($Miercoles+1))
Friday=$(($Jueves+1))
Saturday=$(($Viernes+1))
Sunday=$(($Sabado+1))
else
echo "As updates only occur on Monday, an update will not be necessary yet."
fi

echo "Today date is: "; date +%A,%d" of "%B,%Y
echo "Do you want to add any task for the weekend?"
read Task
if [ $Task = "Yes" ]; then
{
echo "For which day?"
read Dayoftask
if [ $Dayoftask = "Monday" ]; then
echo "What task do you want to add for $Dayoftask ?"
read Whattask
MondayTask1=$($Whattask)
echo $MondayTask1 #Just checking if the script is saving the correct info.
fi
}
fi

It's in line 27, where it gives me this error. "my_script_1: line 27: Prueba: command not found
" It's the part where the $Whattask is saved into a variable, I believe. Anyways, I don't know what's wrong, I followed your recommendation for working with variables and the whole $() thing. Hope I'm making myself clear. Thanks!

[JeoSaurus]

Glad we could help!

Using $() is only needed if there is a command you need to execute, like where you are calling the 'date' command.

To just set a variable, you don't need $(). Line 27 should *probably* be more like: MondayTask1=$Whattask

[Felipevd]

Well, that problem is now gone! But I have a new one now! (Off course I do...) Here is my code:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Please, type in the day of the week."
read Day

if [ $Day="Monday" ];then
Monday=$(date +%d)
Tuesday=$(($Monday+1))
Wednesday=$(($Tuesday+1))
Thursday=$(($Wednesday+1))
Friday=$(($Thursday+1))
Saturday=$(($Friday+1))
Sunday=$(($Saturday+1))
else
echo "As updates only occur on Monday, an update will not be necessary yet."
fi

echo "Today date is: "; date +%A,%d" of "%B,%Y
echo "Do you want to add any task for the weekend?"
read Task
if [ $Task = "Yes" ]; then
echo "For which day?"
read Dayoftask
	case $Dayoftask in
"Monday" | "monday" ) echo "What task do you want to add for $Dayoftask?" 
read Whattask
		if [ -n ${Tasksarray[@]} ]; then
Tasksarraylength=${#Tasksarray[@]}
Tasksarray[${Tasksarraylength}+1]=$whattask
echo "${Tasksarray[${Tasksarraylength}]"
else
declare -a Tasksarray
Tasksarray[0]=$whattask
		fi
;;
"Tuesday" | "tuesday") echo "What task do you want to add for ${Dayoftask}?"
;;
"Wednesday" | "wednesday") echo "What task do you want to add for ${Dayoftask}?"
;;
"Thursday" | "thursday") echo "What task do you want to add for ${Dayoftask}?"
;;
"Friday" | "friday") echo "What task do you want to add for ${Dayoftask}?"
;;
"Saturday" | "saturday") echo "What task do you want to add for ${Dayoftask}?"
;;
"Sunday" | "sunday") echo "What task do you want to add for ${Dayoftask}?"
;;
*) echo "You did not type any day of the week"
;;
	esac
fi

With that code, the errors bash pops out are the following:
line 47: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `"'
line 51: syntax error: unexpected end of file

Any idea of why is this happening? Thanks!

[JeoSaurus]

Hmm... Are you using an editor that supports syntax highlighting?

This error:
unexpected EOF while looking for matching `"'

...means that there's something left open somewhere. That could mean that there's an extra quotation mark somewhere, or a missing one. In THIS case, you've left a set of brackets open:

echo "${Tasksarray[${Tasksarraylength}]"
       ^Open bracket                   ^Missing bracket

[Felipevd]

Problem solved again! Thank you very much. Now, if I'm not being annoying, would you mind telling me how to make a variable, remember? i.e ( I want a a variable, so that every time I open the script, data is kept in that variable, so when I wanna look it, it has data from last time I used the script ). Don't know If I made myself clear, hope I did. Help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[JeoSaurus]

Glad to hear that it helped!

For something like that (keeping a variable consistent between runs of the script), you might want to use a temporary file, and ask at the beginning of the script if the user wants to use information from the previous session.