How can you search for a char in a string in bash?

Question

If I have a string var="root/Desktop", how can I determine whether var var contains a '/' character?

Micha Wiedenmann · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-19T11:49:39.600

8

Bash can match against regular expressions with =~, try:

[[ $var =~ "/" ]] && echo "contains a slash"

edited May 19 '13 at 11:49

answered May 18 '13 at 22:49

Micha Wiedenmann

+1 - Yours is better than using grep. But I think using an external program has its advantages. – Elazar May 18 '13 at 22:52

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered May 18 '13 at 23:11

4

The following would work

[[ "$var" = */* ]]

answered May 18 '13 at 23:11

iruvar

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered May 19 '13 at 14:22

3

The portable solution that works in any Bourne-heritage shell and needs no expensive forks or pipes:

 case $var in
   (*/*)   printf 'Has a slash.\n';;
   (*)     printf 'No slash.\n';;
 esac

answered May 19 '13 at 14:22

Jens

Elazar · Answer 4 · 2013-05-19T14:30:29.393

2

echo "${var1}" | grep '/' should work.

edited May 19 '13 at 14:30

answered May 18 '13 at 22:48

Elazar

1

Don't forget to quote `"${var1}"`, you never know. – Adrian Frühwirth May 19 '13 at 12:56

4 Answers4