Simple unix shell loop

Question

So I am very new to unix coding and I have a fairly simple task that I just can't seem to figure out.

I have a folder on my desktop with multiple .fq files ( Desktop/btindex ), and I am looking for a way to iterate over just those files in a shell script, and call commands on them. I just can't seem to find the right syntax to do this.

Is it best to write this script in an editor like vim from the console? Or is it better to just write it all out in the console itself?

Edit: I am working in the directory Desktop/bwaout, so my code:

for file in '../btindex/*.fq';
do
    echo $file
done

seems to print...

../btindex/X.fq

How do I just get the .fq to print?

Answer 1

Use a for loop as shown below:

for file in /some/path/*.fq
do
    echo "Processing file: $file"
    # other commands here    
done

Answer 2

for myfile in *.fq ; do command "$myfile" ; another_command "$myfile" ; done