In order to return something beyond my thanks, here is my script:

–

#!/bin/bash
EXPECTED_ARGS=3
COUNTEROFSHOTS=0
COUNTER=0
return=0
imageName=0

# define usage function
usage(){
echo “Usage: $0 shortNameForDatabase startNumber numberOfFiguresForEachNumber”
exit 1
}

help(){
echo
echo “This script help the user in order to take multiple source images for the software X.”
echo
echo “1. Please make sure script Y is properly calibrated.”
echo “2. Press any key in order to take one shot, Ctrl+c to quit”
echo
}

function zeropad {
expo=$((10 ** $2))
[ $1 -gt $expo ] &formatd=$(($1 + $expo))
return=${formatd:1}
}

if [ $# -ne $EXPECTED_ARGS ]
then
usage
echo -n “Press any key to take shot!”
else
COUNTER=$2
help
while [ 1 ]
do
read var_name
zeropad $COUNTER $3
imageName=$1$return.png
echo ./Y $imageName
COUNTER=$((COUNTER+1))
COUNTEROFSHOTS=$((COUNTEROFSHOTS+1))
echo -n $COUNTEROFSHOTS”.”$imageName.” done. Press any key to take shot!”
done
fi

this is equivalent bash v4 code:

for x in $(echo {01..32}); do mkdir $x; done

Bizarre!

– Carl

padding=”00000″ # put as much zeros as you want.
for ((i=0; i<31; i+=1))
do
echo ${padding:${#i}}$i
done

2 years on and this webpage is still helping people.

Thanks a lot!

The 3rd and 4th lines were merged into one. They should be:

[ $1 -gt $expo ] AMPAMP { echo $1; return; }
formatd=$(($1 + $expo))

where AMPAMP is 2 ampersands.

function zeropad {
expo=$((10 ** $2))
[ $1 -gt $expo ] &formatd=$(($1 + $expo))
echo ${formatd:1}
}

Example:
zeropad 59 10
0000000059

#!/bin/bash

(( million = 1000000 ))
(( index = 1 ))

while [ $index -lt 500000 ]
do
(( printme = index + million ))
(( index = index + 1 ))
echo ${printme:1}
done

(See the “Shell Parameter Expansion” section of the bash manual for an explanation of what ${printme:1} does.)

On my machine at least (running Debian 4.0; bash v3.1.17) this is 12x faster than the printf version.

The “printf” solution is way more legible, of course.