Using an IF ELSE statement inside a FOR loop in UNIX

Question

I'm trying to use an IF/ELSE statement inside a FOR loops to generate two output files: count1 with numbers 1-5; count2 with numbers 6-10

I am trying

for i in {1..10}
do
        if [ $i -le 5 ]
        then
                echo $i > count1.out
        else
                echo $i > count2.out
        fi
done

but count1 only has "5" in it and count2 shows "10"

How can I fix this?

Use >> instead of >. >> appends text, but > overwrites whatever is in the file. — yellowantphil
– yellowantphil, Commented Feb 25, 2016 at 3:26

Cloud · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-25 03:28:49Z

1

You are using the truncate-redirect operator, >.

You likely intended to use the append-redirect operator, >>.

Consider reading up on BASh I/O redirection in general. It will help you a lot with understanding shell scripts.

answered Feb 25, 2016 at 3:28

Cloud

19.5k16 gold badges96 silver badges161 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

user462356 · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-25 03:28:18Z

1

Using > to redirect to a file replaces the whole content of the file. What you actually want to do is append to the file, which you can do with >> like so:

echo "hello " > somefile.out # replace the contents of whatever is in somefile.out
echo "world!" >> somefile.out # append more stuff to somefile.out

More info here: https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Redirections.html

answered Feb 25, 2016 at 3:28

user462356

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Using an IF ELSE statement inside a FOR loop in UNIX

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related