Hi, This is probably a very simple question. I cannot remember what is the shell equivalent for the Like operator. I want to construct a syntax like this: var=er_non_pstn_output.csv if $var like '*non_pstn*' do something else do something fi Which is to say if the variable var contains the pattern "non_pstn" somewhere, do something. I know the solution is very easy, but simply cannot remember how this is done. Can anyone help? -Anukta

Colon of expr command is the like operator.  If pattern is not found, it returns zero (and false status), otherwise it returns length of the matching portion and true status. The pattern has an automatic beginning-of-line anchor, and you can optionally put an end-of-line anchor. expr "$var" : ".*non_pstn" 11 if expr "$var" : ".*non_pstn" 2> /dev/null ; then    echo 'Pattern found' else    echo 'Pattern NOT found' fi

Thanks James, that worked. I did notice that it works even without a wildcard character. if expr "$var":"non_pstn" 2> /dev/null then echo PATTERN FOUND else echo NOT FOUND fi works as well. -Anukta

Looks like a little problem here: For the value var=er_non_pstn_output.csv expr "$line":".*non_pstn" pattern matches very well.Which is fine. But when var=er_pstn_output.csv I don't want the pattern match to return true, but it does. How can I get around this problem? -Anukta

In ksh there's no "like", you just use "=" with pattern matching: [[ ${var} = *non_pstn* ]] && print Yep

William, That seems to work, Thanks a lot. Can you also tell me when do you use a single '[' bracket for comparison and when do you use a double '[['? -Anukta

[ ] is bourne shell, which ksh supports for backward compatibility. [[ ]] is ksh syntax (also bash). I always use [[ ]].