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From: spicer@tci.UUCP (Steve Spicer)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: for loops
Keywords: sh: for i to $FILES
Message-ID: <523@tci.UUCP>
Date: 4 Apr 91 22:07:04 GMT
References: <3693@ux.acs.umn.edu> <2816@maestro.htsa.aha.nl>
Reply-To: spicer@tci.bell-atl.com (Steven Spicer)
Followup-To: comp.unix.shell
Organization: Technology Concepts Inc. Sudbury MA
Lines: 37

In article <2816@maestro.htsa.aha.nl> miquels@maestro.htsa.aha.nl (Miquel van Smoorenburg) writes:
>In article <3693@ux.acs.umn.edu> edh@ux.acs.umn.edu (Merlinus Ambrosius) writes:
>>In sh, I'd like to do something like a BASIC for loop.  Say I have $FILES
>>set to some number, and I'd like to go through a loop $FILES times.  Can
>>this be done in sh?
>
>POSIX states that sh(1) should be able to evaluate expressions, 
>so you can do something like
>while [ $FILES != 0 ]
>do
>	echo -n '* '
>	FILES=$[$FILES - 1]
>done
>
>But I haven't seen a sh anywhere that is already capable of doing this
>(not even the one I am writing myself for Minix... yet.).
>Maybe somebody knows if a new ksh can do this?

	ksh allows this (which I tested before posting)
	$ integer i=5
	$ while (( i > 0 )) ; do
	>	print $i
	>	(( i = i - 1 ))
	>done
	5
	4
	3
	2
	1
	$

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Steven Spicer/spicer@tci.bell-atl.com

Is your design so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies,
or so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies?
	-- suggested by a quote from C.A.R. Hoare