How to check if a variable is set in Bash?

Question

How do I know if a variable is set in Bash?

For example, how do I check if the user gave the first parameter to a function?

function a {
    # if $1 is set ?
}

Answer 1

You want to exit if it's unset

This worked for me. I wanted my script to exit with an error message if a parameter wasn't set.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

set -o errexit

# Get the value and empty validation check all in one
VER="${1:?You must pass a version of the format 0.0.0 as the only argument}"

This returns with an error when it's run

peek@peek:~$ ./setver.sh
./setver.sh: line 13: 1: You must pass a version of the format 0.0.0 as the only argument

Check only, no exit - Empty and Unset are INVALID

Try this option if you just want to check if the value set=VALID or unset/empty=INVALID.

TSET="good val"
TEMPTY=""
unset TUNSET

if [ "${TSET:-}" ]; then echo "VALID"; else echo "INVALID";fi
# VALID
if [ "${TEMPTY:-}" ]; then echo "VALID"; else echo "INVALID";fi
# INVALID
if [ "${TUNSET:-}" ]; then echo "VALID"; else echo "INVALID";fi
# INVALID

Or, Even short tests ;-)

[ "${TSET:-}"   ] && echo "VALID" || echo "INVALID"
[ "${TEMPTY:-}" ] && echo "VALID" || echo "INVALID"
[ "${TUNSET:-}" ] && echo "VALID" || echo "INVALID"

Check only, no exit - Only empty is INVALID

And this is the answer to the question. Use this if you just want to check if the value set/empty=VALID or unset=INVALID.

NOTE, the "1" in "..-1}" is insignificant, it can be anything (like x)

TSET="good val"
TEMPTY=""
unset TUNSET

if [ "${TSET+1}" ]; then echo "VALID"; else echo "INVALID";fi
# VALID
if [ "${TEMPTY+1}" ]; then echo "VALID"; else echo "INVALID";fi
# VALID
if [ "${TUNSET+1}" ]; then echo "VALID"; else echo "INVALID";fi
# INVALID

Short tests

[ "${TSET+1}"   ] && echo "VALID" || echo "INVALID"
[ "${TEMPTY+1}" ] && echo "VALID" || echo "INVALID"
[ "${TUNSET+1}" ] && echo "VALID" || echo "INVALID"

I dedicate this answer to @mklement0 (comments) who challenged me to answer the question accurately.

Reference http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/V3_chap02.html#tag_18_06_02

Answer 2

In a shell you can use the -z operator which is True if the length of string is zero.

A simple one-liner to set default MY_VAR if it's not set, otherwise optionally you can display the message:

[[ -z "$MY_VAR" ]] && MY_VAR="default"
[[ -z "$MY_VAR" ]] && MY_VAR="default" || echo "Variable already set."

Answer 3

There are many ways to do this with the following being one of them:

if [ -z "$1" ]

This succeeds if $1 is null or unset

Answer 4

In bash you can use -v inside the [[ ]] builtin:

#! /bin/bash -u

if [[ ! -v SOMEVAR ]]; then
    SOMEVAR='hello'
fi

echo $SOMEVAR

Answer 5

While most of the techniques stated here are correct, bash 4.2 supports an actual test for the presence of a variable (man bash), rather than testing the value of the variable.

[[ -v foo ]]; echo $?
# 1

foo=bar
[[ -v foo ]]; echo $?
# 0

foo=""
[[ -v foo ]]; echo $?
# 0

Answer 6

[[ $foo ]]

Or

(( ${#foo} ))

Or

let ${#foo}

Or

declare -p foo