Comparing two strings in linux KSH script

Question

I have two files: file1 and file2. Here is a sample of the files content:

<TG>

   <entry name="KEYNAME" val="" type="string" />

   <entry name="KEYTYPE" val="" type="string" />

   <entry name="TIMEZONE_OFFSET" val="-240" type="INT16" />

   ...

</TG>

I want to check if certain lines (those containing the string "entry name") in file1 exist in file2, and then if yes, compare if the two lines are identical or not.

I literally created file2 by copying file1, then I changed a few values. The problem is that comparing the two string variables does not return correct values. Although when displaying the two variables I can see they are identical, the result of the comparison gives that they are not. I am using Ksh. Here is my code:

while read p; do

    if [[ $p == *"entry name"* ]]; then

        PARAM_NAME=$(echo $p | cut -d '"' -f2)

        echo $PARAM_NAME

        PARAM_OLD=$(grep $PARAM_NAME file2)

        if [[ $PARAM_OLD == *"entry name"* ]]; then

            echo $PARAM_OLD

            echo $p

            if [ "$PARAM_OLD" = "$p" ]; then

                echo 'Identical values'

            else

                echo 'Different values'

            fi

        else

            echo "$PARAM_NAME does not exist in previous version file. Using default value"         

        fi

    fi

done <file1

I tried all possibilities for the parenthesis, equal signs and quotations ([], [[]], = , ==, "", '""', etc.)

Here is the output I am getting:

<entry name="KEYNAME" val="" type="string" />

KEYNAME

<entry name="KEYNAME" val="" type="string" />

<entry name="KEYNAME" val="" type="string" />

Different values

<entry name="KEYTYPE" val="" type="string" />

KEYTYPE

<entry name="KEYTYPE" val="" type="string" />

<entry name="KEYTYPE" val="" type="string" />

Different values

<entry name="TIMEZONE_OFFSET" val="-24" type="INT16" />

TIMEZONE_OFFSET

<entry name="TIMEZONE_OFFSET" val="-240" type="INT16" />

<entry name="TIMEZONE_OFFSET" val="-24" type="INT16" />

Different values

Still I am getting that the strings are different! I would appreciate any explanation and help.

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Answer 1

Most recent/newer OSs have support for both ksh and ksh93.

With ksh93 we can use an associative array to limit ourselves to a single pass through each file.

First some sample data:

$ cat file1
<TG>
   <entry name="KEYNAME" val="" type="string" />
   <entry name="KEYTYPE" val="" type="string" />
   <entry name="KEYATTRIB" val="" type="string" />
   <entry name="TIMEZONE_OFFSET" val="-241" type="INT16" />
</TG>

$ cat file2
<TG>
   <entry name="KEYNAME" val="" type="string" />
   <entry name="KEYTYPE" val="" type="stringX" />
   <entry name="TIMEZONE_OFFSET" val="-240" type="INT16" />
</TG>

The ksh93 script:

$ cat my_comp
#!/bin/ksh93

unset      pline
typeset -A pline

# pull unique list of 'entry name' lines from file2 and store in our associative array pline[]:

egrep "entry name" file2 | sort -u | while read line
do
        # strip out the 'entry name' value

        x=${line#*\"}
        pname=${x%%\"*}

        # use the 'entry name' value as the index for our pline[] array

        pline[${pname}]=${line}
done

# for each unique 'entry name' line in file1, see if we have a match in file2 (aka our pline[] array):

egrep "entry name" file1 | sort -u | while read line
do
        # again, strip out the 'entry name' value

        x=${line#*\"}
        pname=${x%%\"*}

        # if pname does not exist in file2

        [ "${pline[${pname}]}" = '' ]                                                   && \
        echo "\npname = '${pname}' : Does not exist in file2. Using default value:"     && \
        echo "file1: ${line}"                                                           && \
        continue

        # if pname exists in file2 but line is different

        [ "${pline[${pname}]}" = "${line}" ]                            && \
        echo "\npname = '${pname}' : Identical values for pname"        && \
        echo "file1: ${line}"                                           && \
        echo "file2: ${pline[${pname}]}"                                && \
        continue

        # if pname exists in file2 and line is the same

        [ "${pline[${pname}]}" != "${line}" ]                           && \
        echo "\npname = '${pname}' : Different values for pname"        && \
        echo "file1: ${line}"                                           && \
        echo "file2: ${pline[${pname}]}"
done

Running the script against the sample files:

$ my_comp

pname = 'KEYATTRIB' : Does not exist in file2. Using default value:
file1: <entry name="KEYATTRIB" val="" type="string" />

pname = 'KEYNAME' : Identical values for pname
file1: <entry name="KEYNAME" val="" type="string" />
file2: <entry name="KEYNAME" val="" type="string" />

pname = 'KEYTYPE' : Different values for pname
file1: <entry name="KEYTYPE" val="" type="string" />
file2: <entry name="KEYTYPE" val="" type="stringX" />

pname = 'TIMEZONE_OFFSET' : Different values for pname
file1: <entry name="TIMEZONE_OFFSET" val="-241" type="INT16" />
file2: <entry name="TIMEZONE_OFFSET" val="-240" type="INT16" />

Back to plain ol' basic ksh:

$ cat my_comp2
#!/bin/ksh

egrep "entry name" file1 | sort -u | while read line1
do
        x=${line1#*\"}
        pname=${x%%\"*}

        # see if we can find a matching line in file2; need to strip off leading
        # spaces in order to match with line1

        unset line2
        line2=$( egrep "entry name.*${pname}" file2 | sed 's/^ *//g' )

        # if pname does not exist in file2

        [ "${line2}" = '' ]                                                            && \
        echo "\npname = '${pname}' : Does not exist in file2. Using default value:"    && \
        echo "file1: ${line1}"                                                         && \
        continue

        # if pname exists in file2 but lines are different

        [ "${line2}" = "${line1}" ]                                     && \
        echo "\npname = '${pname}' : Identical values for pname"        && \
        echo "file1: ${line1}"                                          && \
        echo "file2: ${line2}"                                          && \
        continue

        # if pname exists in file2 and lines are the same

        [ "${line2}" != "${line1}" ]                                    && \
        echo "\npname = '${pname}' : Different values for pname"        && \
        echo "file1: ${line1}"                                          && \
        echo "file2: ${line2}"
done

Running the script against the sample files:

$ my_comp2

pname = 'KEYATTRIB' : Does not exist in file2. Using default value:
file1: <entry name="KEYATTRIB" val="" type="string" />

pname = 'KEYNAME' : Identical values for pname
file1: <entry name="KEYNAME" val="" type="string" />
file2: <entry name="KEYNAME" val="" type="string" />

pname = 'KEYTYPE' : Different values for pname
file1: <entry name="KEYTYPE" val="" type="string" />
file2: <entry name="KEYTYPE" val="" type="stringX" />

pname = 'TIMEZONE_OFFSET' : Different values for pname
file1: <entry name="TIMEZONE_OFFSET" val="-241" type="INT16" />
file2: <entry name="TIMEZONE_OFFSET" val="-240" type="INT16" />

Comparing two strings in linux KSH script

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