storing passed arguments in separate variables -shell scripting

Question

In my script "script.sh" , I want to store 1st and 2nd argument to some variable and then store the rest to another separate variable. What command I must use to implement this task? Note that the number of arguments that is passed to a script will vary.

When I run the command in console

./script.sh abc def ghi jkl mn o p qrs xxx   #It can have any number of arguments

In this case, I want my script to store "abc" and "def" in one variable. "ghi jkl mn o p qrs xxx" should be stored in another variable.

William Pursell · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-13 23:02:23Z

13

If you just want to concatenate the arguments:

#!/bin/sh

first_two="$1 $2"  # Store the first two arguments
shift              # Discard the first argument
shift              # Discard the 2nd argument
remainder="$*"     # Store the remaining arguments

Note that this destroys the original positional arguments, and they cannot be reliably reconstructed. A little more work is required if that is desired:

#!/bin/sh

first_two="$1 $2"  # Store the first two arguments
a="$1"; b="$2"     # Store the first two argument separately
shift              # Discard the first argument
shift              # Discard the 2nd argument
remainder="$*"     # Store the remaining arguments
set "$a" "$b" "$@" # Restore the positional arguments

edited Dec 13, 2012 at 23:02

answered Dec 13, 2012 at 22:51

William Pursell

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3 Comments

HelloGoodbye Over a year ago

Note that this will only work if the arguments don't contain any spaces.

William Pursell Over a year ago

@HelloGoodbye This works just fine if the arguments contain whitespace. You cannot reliably reproduce the argument from the value of "remainder" in that case, but $a, $b and the new positional arguments are correct.

HelloGoodbye Over a year ago

Yes, you're right, I don't know what I was thinking. I probably reacted the fact that the distinction between the first and second arguments is lost in your first code snipped if any of them contains spaces. But maybe that's okay for the OP.

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-13 22:57:47Z

4

Slice the $@ array.

var1=("${@:1:2}")
var2=("${@:3}")

answered Dec 13, 2012 at 22:57

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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1 Comment

Gordon Davisson Over a year ago

Note that since these are stored as arrays (which is the right way to do it), they must be expanded with a special syntax: echo "first two=" "${var1[@]}"; echo "remainder=" "${var2[@]}"

Iluvatar · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-11 20:23:50Z

3

Store all args in table

  vars=("$@")

  echo "${vars[10]}"

answered Apr 11, 2016 at 20:23

Iluvatar

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