Need help with beginner bash script

Question

Im writing a script that prompts the user to pick one of three choices, depending on the choice the prompt should echo back a line.

"!/bin/bash
first=chocolate
second=vanilla
third=strawberry
echo "Which would you choose?"
read -p "chocolate,vanilla or strawberry?"
if [ $first ];
then
echo "Chocolate! good choice"
else
echo "Not a valid choice"
if [ $second ];
then
echo "vanilla! good choice"
else
echo "Not a valid choice"
if [ $third ];
then
echo "Strawberry! good choice"
else
echo "Not a valid choice"
fi

But it doesnt work, I type in one of the choices in the prompt when it asks for it but I get back :line 28: syntax error: unexpected end of line

I dont know whats wrong, i have spacing between the brackets and I end the code with fi.

A script should start with #! not "!. Aside from that, it's hard to guess the source of the error since the fragment you posted appears to have fewer than 28 lines. Regardless, it would be more idiomatic to use a case statement. Since you didn't provide an identifier in your read command, its result will be available in $REPLY by default. — steeldriver, Oct 30 '23 at 02:13
Always paste your script into https://shellcheck.net, a syntax checker, or install shellcheck locally. Make using shellcheck part of your development process. — waltinator, Oct 30 '23 at 02:24
... see also How can I create a select menu in a shell script? — steeldriver, Oct 30 '23 at 02:38

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 30 '23 at 14:56

For shell menus, select is the way to go:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
PS3="Which would you choose? "
select choice in chocolate vanilla strawberry; do
    case $choice in
        vanilla)
            echo "${choice}! good choice"
            break
            ;;
        chocolate|strawberry)
            echo "Not the correct choice"
            break
            ;;
        # otherwise, reply was not one of the choices: stay in the menu.
    esac
done

In addition, note the use of a case statement instead of multiple if and else statements. case should always be preferred for simple statements with 2 or more options. However, case does not allow for the more complex logics as [[ ]] in Bash.

For your code, lack of indentation is hiding the errors:

if [ $first ];
then
    echo "Chocolate! good choice"
else
    echo "Not a valid choice"
    if [ $second ];
    then
        echo "vanilla! good choice"
    else
        echo "Not a valid choice"
        if [ $third ];
        then
            echo "Strawberry! good choice"
        else
            echo "Not a valid choice"
        fi

You are missing fi for two if statements.

There are other logic errors, but this is the cause of the syntax errors.

Need help with beginner bash script

1 Answers1