The -p test is something completely different ("true if the given file exists and is a named pipe"). Note: not using quotes will cause issues when words contain spaces, etc. validate does not accept substrings (remove the -x option to grep if you want that). Check if strings are not equal in Bash Instead of checking the quality, let’s do the opposite and check the inequality. You want the -n test ("true if the length of the given string is non-zero"), which is the opposite of the -z test ("true if the length of the given string is zero"). You can use (!=) operator to check when both strings are not equal. Above, PHONE_TYPE="SPACE TEL" would match too. The [and [[evaluate conditional expression. You can quickly test for null or empty variables in a Bash shell script. Please note that you need at least bash 4 for this use of =~ It doesn't work in bash 3. Always quote in Bash IMO. Here are some examples Bash 4+: Example 1, check for 'yes' in string (case insensitive): if [[ "${str,,}" == *"yes"* ]] ;then Example 2, check for 'yes' in string (case insensitive): This is a synonym for the test command/builtin. Reference: Advanced Bash Script guide. How to check if a string contains a substring in Bash (14) Compatible answer. Bash If statement syntax is Let’s create a new test.sh script as shown below: nano test.sh. Bash 4+ examples. if grep -q "$user2" /etc/passwd; then echo "User does exist!!" Now you can use any other special character here to combine both the strings. You can look in the Bash man page in the section called "Parameter Expansion" for information about ${var//string} and ${var#string} and in the section called "Pattern Matching" for [^[:digit:]]` (which is also covered in man 7 regex). I tested on MS Windows 7 using bash 4.3.46 (works fine) and bash 3.1.17 (didn't work) The LHS of the =~ should be in quotes. Bash check if a string contains a substring . Please note that the following is bash specific syntax and it will not work with BourneShell: Bash also provides the negation operator so that you can easily use “if not equal” condition in shell scripts. In my bash script I'm trying to print a line if a certain string does not exist in a file. Sample code to exercise the function: This information is available to you in an interactive bash … However, [[is bash’s improvement to the [command. So as you see now I have used curly braces {} to make sure the separator is not considered part of the variable, now let's check the output from the script: ~]# ./eg_1.sh Hello_World This is the one of the most important thing you should always remember when working with bash string concatenation. Check If Two Strings are Not Equal (!=) Bash also provides the negation operator to use “if not equal” condition in bash scripts. If the string on it somehow represents a regex (like [0-9] for example), there is a higher chance to trigger a "match". You need to pass the -z or -n option to the test command or to the if command or use conditional expression.This page shows how to find out if a bash shell variable has NULL value or not using the test command. When comparing strings in Bash you can use the following operators: string1 = string2 and string1 == string2 - The equality operator returns true if the operands are equal. Example – if -z (to check if string has zero length) Example – if -s (to check if file size is greater than zero) Example – if -n (to check if string length is not zero) Example – if -f (to check if file exists and is a regular file) Syntax of Bash If. validate interprets its argument as a fixed string, not a regular expression (remove the -F option to grep if you want that). does - bash string not contains . 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