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 can do:

function a {
        if [ ! -z "$1" ]; then
                echo '$1 is set'
        fi
}

Answer 2

The answers above do not work when Bash option set -u is enabled. Also, they are not dynamic, e.g., how to test is variable with name "dummy" is defined? Try this:

is_var_defined()
{
    if [ $# -ne 1 ]
    then
        echo "Expected exactly one argument: variable name as string, e.g., 'my_var'"
        exit 1
    fi
    # Tricky.  Since Bash option 'set -u' may be enabled, we cannot directly test if a variable
    # is defined with this construct: [ ! -z "$var" ].  Instead, we must use default value
    # substitution with this construct: [ ! -z "${var:-}" ].  Normally, a default value follows the
    # operator ':-', but here we leave it blank for empty (null) string.  Finally, we need to
    # substitute the text from $1 as 'var'.  This is not allowed directly in Bash with this
    # construct: [ ! -z "${$1:-}" ].  We need to use indirection with eval operator.
    # Example: $1="var"
    # Expansion for eval operator: "[ ! -z \${$1:-} ]" -> "[ ! -z \${var:-} ]"
    # Code  execute: [ ! -z ${var:-} ]
    eval "[ ! -z \${$1:-} ]"
    return $?  # Pedantic.
}

Related: In Bash, how do I test if a variable is defined in "-u" mode

Answer 3

This is what I use every day:

#
# Check if a variable is set
#   param1  name of the variable
#
function is_set()
{
    [[ -n "${1}" ]] && test -n "$(eval "echo "\${${1}+x}"")"
}

This works well under Linux and Solaris down to bash 3.0.

bash-3.00$ myvar="TEST"
bash-3.00$ is_set myvar ; echo $?
0
bash-3.00$ mavar=""
bash-3.00$ is_set myvar ; echo $?
0
bash-3.00$ unset myvar
bash-3.00$ is_set myvar ; echo $?
1

Answer 4

case "$1" in
 "") echo "blank";;
 *) echo "set"
esac

Answer 5

To check for non-null/non-zero string variable, i.e. if set, use

if [ -n "$1" ]

It's the opposite of -z. I find myself using -n more than -z.

You would use it like:

if [ -n "$1" ]; then
  echo "You supplied the first parameter!"
else
  echo "First parameter not supplied."
fi

Answer 6

On a modern version of Bash (4.2 or later I think; I don't know for sure), I would try this:

if [ ! -v SOMEVARIABLE ] #note the lack of a $ sigil
then
    echo "Variable is unset"
elif [ -z "$SOMEVARIABLE" ]
then
    echo "Variable is set to an empty string"
else
    echo "Variable is set to some string"
fi