Skip to main content
ubuntuask.com

Back to all posts

How to Compare Strings In Bash?

Published on
2 min read

Table of Contents

Show more
How to Compare Strings In Bash? image

To compare strings in Bash, you can use different operators and commands. Here are a few methods:

  1. Using the double bracket [[ ]] construct:

string1="Hello" string2="World" if [[ $string1 == $string2 ]]; then echo "Strings are equal" else echo "Strings are not equal" fi

  1. Using the test command [ ]:

string1="Hello" string2="World" if [ "$string1" = "$string2" ]; then echo "Strings are equal" else echo "Strings are not equal" fi

  1. Using the test command [[ ]]:

string1="Hello" string2="World" if [[ "$string1" = "$string2" ]]; then echo "Strings are equal" else echo "Strings are not equal" fi

  1. Using the string comparison operators (==, !=, <, >):

string1="Hello" string2="World" if [ "$string1" != "$string2" ]; then echo "Strings are not equal" fi

  1. Using the case statement:

string="Hello" case "$string" in "Hello") echo "String is Hello" ;; "World") echo "String is World" ;; *) echo "String does not match any case" ;; esac

Each of these methods offers different ways to compare strings in Bash. Remember to use quotes around variables to avoid issues with spaces or special characters.

What is the command for changing a string to lowercase in Bash?

The tr command can be used to change a string to lowercase in Bash. Here is an example:

echo "Hello World" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]'

This will output "hello world", converting all uppercase letters to lowercase.

What is the command for splitting a string into an array in Bash?

The command for splitting a string into an array in Bash is declare -a array=($string) or array=($string).

How to concatenate two strings in Bash?

In Bash, you can concatenate two strings using the + operator or by simply placing the strings next to each other. Here are a few examples:

Example 1: Using the + operator

string1="Hello" string2="World" result=$string1$string2 echo $result # Output: HelloWorld

Example 2: Placing the strings next to each other

string1="Hello" string2="World" result="$string1$string2" echo $result # Output: HelloWorld

Example 3: Using the += assignment operator

string1="Hello" string2="World" string1+=$string2 echo $string1 # Output: HelloWorld

Note that in all three examples, we assign the concatenated string to another variable (result in Example 1 and Example 2, and string1 in Example 3) before printing it out. This is not required; it is done to make it clear that the strings are being concatenated