Shell script: Syntax error: "(" unexpected

Question

This is a very weird problem. I run test.sh using sh test.sh but it returns an error as mentioned in the subject line.

Here's the code for reference:

#!/bin/bash

foreach n ( 1 2 3 4 5 )
  echo $n
end

It's just a simple loop but it won't execute. Complete error below:

test.sh: 3: test.sh: Syntax error: "(" unexpected

See how to iterate over a range in `bash` here - [How do I iterate over a range of numbers defined by variables in Bash?](https://stackoverflow.com/q/169511/5291015) — Inian, Sep 05 '19 at 07:16

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 05 '19 at 07:17

4

There's no foreach in bash. What you've tried works in tcsh or csh.

The corresponding bash syntax is

for n in 1 2 3 4 5 ; do
    echo $n
done

answered Sep 05 '19 at 07:17

choroba

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 05 '19 at 13:57

2

foreach is not available in bash. It is for instead.

For simple range based iterations,

for n in {1..5};
do
  echo $n;
done

works in reverse too: {5..1} Alphabets: {a..z} {z..a}

For more range based iterations with step != 1, use seq

edited Sep 05 '19 at 13:57

chepner

answered Sep 05 '19 at 07:24

Sam Daniel

Prefer a C-style for loop to `seq` (which may or may not even be available). – chepner Sep 05 '19 at 13:57

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 05 '19 at 07:19

1

Change it to this:

#!/bin/bash

for n in  1 2 3 4 5
do
  echo $n
done

answered Sep 05 '19 at 07:19

Spydernaz

3 Answers3