Bash - Multiple choice, user input

Question

I am quite new in bash and would like to link appropriate choice with profile parameters for that user. Problem is that is not recognize my selection

I have already tried to test but have had syntax error near unexpected token `newline'

> echo "Name? Use, alphabetic letter from multiple choice. 
a)Donald
b)Alan 
c)Brian"

  read -p "Insert appropriate letter a, b or c" don ala br

  echo "Perfect" $don 
  echo "Perfect, OK" $ala 
  echo "Perfect, Nice" $br

  case "$dev" 
  echo "OK" 
  esac

I would like to hit letter and enter afterwards go to case where define params for the profile. I have encountered below error: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'

A very nice explanation of how to do a Select menu can be found on AskUbuntuu: How can I create a select menu in a shell script?. Other related are here and here — kvantour
– kvantour, Commented Jun 18, 2019 at 13:12

choroba · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-18 11:18:23Z

4

select is usually used for command line menus. It normally expects only one answer, but you can tweak it for example in the following way:

#! /bin/bash

names=(Donald Alan Brian)
selected=()
PS3='Name? You can select multiple space separated options: '
select name in "${names[@]}" ; do
    for reply in $REPLY ; do
        selected+=(${names[reply - 1]})
    done
    [[ $selected ]] && break
done
echo Selected: "${selected[@]}"

answered Jun 18, 2019 at 11:18

choroba

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1 Comment

Barceloniak Over a year ago

Not quite follow the flow of code. Do we have simplier way on beginning of my way.

chepner · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-18 13:06:32Z

3

Your current read command tries to split the input into 3 words, assigning each piece to one of don, ala, br. You just want to read one word, and compare it to each of a, b, or c. You can do this with a case statement:

read -p "Insert appropriate letter a, b, or c" choice

case $choice in
  a) echo "Perfect $choice" ;;
  b) echo "Perfect, OK $choice" ;;
  c) echo "Perfect, Nice $choice" ;;
  *) echo "Unrecognized selection: $choice" ;;
esac

answered Jun 18, 2019 at 13:06

chepner

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1 Comment

Barceloniak Over a year ago

Thanks, for hint. Could you also give me directions how to link creation parameters for the account. Perhaps using "if" ? Mean, selection ended - skip to appropriate values, shaping profile, now

gojimmypi · Accepted Answer · 2022-05-22 00:14:15Z

0

Here's something that will restrict the input to only a, b, c; allowing upper or lower case; waiting for one of those values.

Putting the upper case value in THIS_SELECTION and then using it in a case statement:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Name? Use, alphabetic letter from multiple choice. 
    a)Donald
    b)Alan 
    c)Brian"

THIS_SELECTION=
until [ "${THIS_SELECTION^}" == "A" ] || [ "${THIS_SELECTION^}" == "B" ] || [ "${THIS_SELECTION^}" == "C" ]; do
    read -n1 -p "Insert appropriate letter a, b or c: "  THIS_SELECTION
    THIS_SELECTION=${THIS_SELECTION^}
    echo;
done 

case "${THIS_SELECTION}" in
    A) echo A Donald ;;
    B) echo B Alan ;;
    C) echo C Brian ;;
    *) echo other ;;
esac

answered May 22, 2022 at 0:14

gojimmypi

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