concatenating an element of array in a for loop

Question

I have a script in which I am attempting to match strings in filenames on either side of a word. The keywords which are meant for pattern matchin with the wildcard character, as in:

ls *spin*.txt

This will of course match any of the following filenames:

one_spin.txt 4_5342spin-yyy.txt fifty_spinout.txt

...etc.

What I would like to do is use the word 'spin' and a number of other words as match cases in an array that I can pass through a loop. I'd like these matches to be case-insensitive I attempt this like so:

types=(spin wheel rotation)

for file in $types; do
    ls '*'${file}'*.txt'
done

EDIT: Because I'm looking for a solution that is maleable, I'd also like to be able to do something like:

types=(spin wheel rotation)

for file in $types; do
    find . -iname "*$file*.txt"
done

I'm not sure how bash interprets either of these except seeing that it does not list the desired files. Can someone clarify what is happening in my script, and offer a solution that meets the aforementioned criteria?

tshiono · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-30 09:11:44Z

2

Your attempt will work with a little more tweaks. As you are assigning types as an array, you need to access it as an array.
Would you please try:

types=(spin wheel rotation)

for file in "${types[@]}"; do
    ls *${file}*.txt
done

If your bash supports shopt builtin, you can also say:

shopt -s extglob
ls *@(spin|wheel|rotation)*.txt

If you want to make it match in a case-insensitive way, please try:

shopt -s extglob nocaseglob
ls *@(spin|wheel|rotation)*.txt

which will match one_Spin.txt, fifty_SPINOUT.TXT, etc.

Hope this helps.

edited Dec 30, 2019 at 9:11

answered Dec 30, 2019 at 4:26

tshiono

22.3k2 gold badges18 silver badges26 bronze badges

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

3 Comments

jml Over a year ago

Thank you - I need to study the shopt built-in. I'd seen the extglob option and I don't fully understand what it affords a .sh script, pattern-wise. Found a decent overview here: riptutorial.com/bash/example/13126/extended-globbing

jml Over a year ago

what if I want to match and have it be case-insensitive? Something like echo find . -iname *${file}*.txt

tshiono Over a year ago

Thank you for the prompt feedback. Surely find . -iname "*$file*.txt" does work. you can also make use of shopt -s nocaseglob as well. Please take a look of my updated answer. BR.

Ivan · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-30 12:25:21Z

0

don't make it complicate please try this instead

ls *{spin,wheel,rotation}*.txt

This also helpfull in creating files

touch 1_{spin,wheel,rotation,ads,sad,zxc}_2.txt

Or dirs

mkdir -p {test,test2/log,test3}

answered Dec 30, 2019 at 12:25

Ivan

7,5011 gold badge22 silver badges27 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

concatenating an element of array in a for loop

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Related