I want to make a function that will check a number between 1-5 and according to number it gets, it will output the amount of echo lines, as in following example:
if number 1-5 then show the list of outputs according to chosen number
so
if 2 then act as following:
echo "one" <------start here
echo "two" <------stop here
echo "three"
the end output put will be:
one
two
if 3 then act as following:
echo "one" <------start here
echo "two"
echo "three" <------stop here
the end output will be:
one
two
three
I need it in one function. I know it can be done the hard way, as following:
#!/bin/bash
if [[ $num = 1 ]]; then
echo "one"
fi
if [[ $num = 2 ]]; then
echo "one"
echo "two"
fi
but it will be too long if I will have to do it 50 times. I am sure there is an alternative way for that.
You can use a loop if you store the data you need in an associative array:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
numbers=( [1]="one" [2]="two" [3]="three" [4]="four" [5]="five" )
max=${1:-5} # either use $1 or default to 5 if empty
for ((i=1; i<=max; i++)); do
echo "${numbers[$i]}"
done
If this script is named f, behavior is as follows:
$ f 2
one
two
$ f 5
one
two
three
four
five
If your real use case involves running completely arbitrary commands, then your code might look more like the following:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
steps=( [1]=step_one [2]=step_two [3]=step_three [4]=step_four [5]=step_five )
max=${1:-5}
step_one() { echo "one"; }
step_two() { echo "two"; }
step_three() { echo "three"; }
step_four() { echo "four"; }
step_five() { echo "five"; }
for ((i=1; i<=max; i++)); do
"${steps[$i]}"
done