Programming Tutorials

Rules for Naming variable names in Linux Shell Script

By: Vivek G.  

(1) Variable name must begin with Alphanumeric character or underscore character (_), followed by one or more Alphanumeric character. For e.g. Valid shell variable are as follows
HOME
SYSTEM_VERSION
vech
no

(2) Don't put spaces on either side of the equal sign when assigning value to variable. For e.g. In following variable declaration there will be no error
$ no=10
But there will be problem for any of the following variable declaration:
$ no =10
$ no= 10
$ no = 10

(3) Variables are case-sensitive, just like filename in Linux. For e.g.
$ no=10
$ No=11
$ NO=20
$ nO=2
Above all are different variable name, so to print value 20 we have to use $ echo $NO and not any of the following
$ echo $no # will print 10 but not 20
$ echo $No# will print 11 but not 20
$ echo $nO# will print 2 but not 20

(4) You can define NULL variable as follows (NULL variable is variable which has no value at the time of definition) For e.g.
$ vech=
$ vech=""
Try to print it's value by issuing following command
$ echo $vech
Nothing will be shown because variable has no value i.e. NULL variable.

(5) Do not use ?,* etc, to name your variable names.

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