A variable's name versus its value
A common mistake is to forget to use $
before the name of a variable.
When you do this,
the shell uses the name you have typed
rather than the value of that variable.
A more common mistake for experienced users is to mis-type the variable's name.
For example,
if you define datasets
like this:
datasets=seasonal/*.csv
and then type:
echo $datsets
the shell doesn't print anything,
because datsets
(without the second "a") isn't defined.
If you were to run these two commands in your home directory, what output would be printed?
files=seasonal/*.csv
for f in files; do echo $f; done
(Read the first part of the loop carefully before answering.)
This exercise is part of the course
Introduction to Shell
Hands-on interactive exercise
Turn theory into action with one of our interactive exercises
