2006-10-31, 03:07(-05), Chris F.A. Johnson:
> On 2006-10-31, neo wrote:
>> hi, i am a newbie in shell. i am using c shell.
>
> If you want to write a script, don't use csh.
>
>> say convert a argument to int.
>> if it is not a int , some flag or message should be got.
>> how to do so in a neat way?
>
> A simple test for a numeric argument, in a standard shell is:
>
> case $n in
> *[!0-9]*) printf "%s\n" "Not a number" ;;

"" | *[!0-9]*) ...

for unsigned int, assuming you don't want to check for
boundaries (too big numbers) and that 089 would not be taken as
an invalid octal number.

> esac



--
Stéphane