Integer expression expected error with shell script

Question

im a real noob with this, sorry if this is a stupid question

heres a clip of the code

(first line is line #259, last line is #263)

if [ $col -le 6 ]
then
echo -e "\t\t\033[91;4m
$paragraph\033[0m"
elif ! [ $col -le 12 ]

when i run it this is what i get when i run it

./checker.sh: line 259: [: .",: integer expression expected
./checker.sh: line 263: [: .",: integer expression expected

when i looked up this error it said to make sure there is a space in between the bracket and i have a bracket. im not sure what else to do.

Check the value of $col. It almost certainly isn't what you expect it is. (And, in fact, would appear that it is .\", somehow. — Etan Reisner
– Etan Reisner, Commented Aug 26, 2016 at 2:42
Possible duplicate of Error "integer expression expected" in script — tripleee
– tripleee, Commented Aug 26, 2016 at 4:08

John1024 · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-26 02:42:56Z

2

Error messages are informative if you study how to read them.

Let's run three examples:

$ col="1"; [ $col -le 6 ]
$ col=""; [ $col -le 6 ]
bash: [: -le: unary operator expected
$ col="a"; [ $col -le 6 ]
bash: [: a: integer expression expected

Of these three, you obtained the message: "integer expression expected". That means that your col is not an integer.

To reproduce the message you see, we set col=' .",':

$ col=' .",'; [ $col -le 6 ]
bash: [: .",: integer expression expected

answered Aug 26, 2016 at 2:42

John1024

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4 Comments

Fish Over a year ago

that's just the part of the script that giving me the error. would it help if i put the entire script in?

John1024 Over a year ago

You could just look for the part that sets the value of col. If it is not clear where that is, then run bash -x checker.sh. This will produce a lot of diagnostic output. Search through the output for where col is set and look for why it is set to the wrong value.

Fish Over a year ago

col=() which means it's set to nothing if I'm correct

John1024 Over a year ago

Yes, that is right. More precisely, col=() means that it is set to an empty array. For the code shown in the question to work, you need col set to a number.

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