Length of string in bash

bash variables string-length
AJP picture AJP · Jun 28, 2013 · Viewed 562k times · Source

How do you get the length of a string stored in a variable and assign that to another variable?

myvar="some string"
echo ${#myvar}  
# 11

How do you set another variable to the output 11?

Answer

fedorqui 'SO stop harming' picture fedorqui 'SO stop harming' · Jun 28, 2013

To get the length of a string stored in a variable, say:

myvar="some string"
size=${#myvar}

To confirm it was properly saved, echo it:

$ echo "$size"
11

Related questions

How to check if a variable is set in Bash?

How do I know if a variable is set in Bash? For example, how do I check if the user gave the first parameter to a function? function a { # if $1 is set ? }

Read More
How to trim whitespace from a Bash variable?

I have a shell script with this code: var=`hg st -R "$path"` if [ -n "$var" ]; then echo $var fi But the conditional code always executes, because hg st always prints at least one newline character. Is there a simple …

Read More
Create timestamp variable in bash script

I am trying to create a timestamp variable in a shell script to make the logging a little easier. I want to create the variable at the beginning of the script and have it print out the current time whenever …

Read More