bash wont assign variables

Question

I can't get my bash script to assign variables within a loop:

#!/bin/bash

usercount=0
for word in userfile
do
    let usercount=$usercount+1
done

echo $usercount

Output for usercount is always 0. Whats wrong with this?

Answer 1

You need while loop to read the file line by line :

usercount=0
while read l; do
  let usercount=$usercount+1;
done < userfile

Though just to count line you can very well do:

usercount=$(wc -l < userfile)

Answer 2

If you want to count lines or words in a file, use wc :

Words:

wc -w < file

Lines:

wc -l < file

Answer 3

Most people normally use double parentheses for shell arithmetic:

usercount=0
for word in userfile groupfile elephants
do
    ((usercount++))
done

echo $usercount

This snippet echoes 3 , corresponding to the three words. You can also use let ; most people don't. However, when I run your code, it echoes 1 .