Incrementing a variable inside a Bash loop

Question

I\'m trying to write a small script that will count entries in a log file, and I\'m incrementing a variable (USCOUNTER) which I\'m trying to use after the loop

Answer 1

You're getting final 0 because your while loop is being executed in a sub (shell) process and any changes made there are not reflected in the current (parent) shell.

Correct script:

while read -r country _; do
  if [ "US" = "$country" ]; then
        ((USCOUNTER++))
        echo "US counter $USCOUNTER"
  fi
done < "$FILE"