mjhjmtu

I am trying to create a function which returns 0 or 1 (i.e. true or false) and takes an argument, then create a variable in another which stores the results of that function. Finally check if that variable is 0 or 1 (true or false)

Here is a sample of what I am attempting

#!/bin/bash

_has_string() 
 if [ $1 == "string" ];
 return 0
 else
 return 1
 fi


_my_func() 
 var=$(_has_string "string")
 if [ $var == "0" ]; then
 echo "var contains string"
 else
 echo "var does not contain string"
 fi


_my_func

I have tried a few variations of this and can not seem to find a way to get it to work. All of my variations basically just return the $var as nothing. Not a 0. Not null. Literally it is just blank.

You confuse output with the exit code.

_my_func() {
 if _has_string 'string'; then

You should also quote your variables; and _has_string can be simplified:

_has_string() 
 [ "$1" = 'string' ]

$(...) returns the output of the command: the things sent to stdout. You want the exit code. After a process (or, in your case, function) exits in a bash script, the special variable $? is set to the exit code.

So rather than

var=$(_has_string 'string')
...

consider

_has_string 'string'
var=$?
...

As others already pointed out, what you need to merely use the function within the if statement. Here's something you might not have known:

A function can be treated as a form of compound command. And according to bash manual [[ is one of the operators that can be used in construction of a compound command. Thus, your function _has_string() can be implemented as so:

$ _has_string()[[ "$1" = "string" ]]
$ if _has_string "string"; then echo "YES"; fi
YES

Of course, this is in no way portable, because of the [[ operator. But we can make use of ( ) or . Here's for example how this works in /bin/dash:

$ _has_string()( [ "$1" = "string" ]; )
$ if _has_string "string"; then echo "YES"; fi
YES
$ if _has_string "nope" ; then echo "YES"; fi 
$