KSH check if string starts with substring

Question

I need to check if the variable has value of string which starts with specified substring.

In Python it would be something like this:

foo = \'abcdef\         


        

Answer 1

You can also do regex matching:

if [[ $foo =~ ^abc ]]

For more complex patterns, I recommend using a variable instead of putting the pattern directly in the test:

bar='^begin (abc|def|ghi)[^ ]* end$'
if [[ $foo =~ $bar ]]