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

Using [[ -z "$var" ]] is the easiest way to know if a variable was set or not, but that option -z doesn't distinguish between an unset variable and a variable set to an empty string:

$ set=''
$ [[ -z "$set" ]] && echo "Set" || echo "Unset" 
Unset
$ [[ -z "$unset" ]] && echo "Set" || echo "Unset"
Unset

It's best to check it according to the type of variable: env variable, parameter or regular variable.

For a env variable:

[[ $(env | grep "varname=" | wc -l) -eq 1 ]] && echo "Set" || echo "Unset"

For a parameter (for example, to check existence of parameter $5):

[[ $# -ge 5 ]] && echo "Set" || echo "Unset"

For a regular variable (using an auxiliary function, to do it in an elegant way):

function declare_var {
   declare -p "$1" &> /dev/null
   return $?
}
declare_var "var_name" && echo "Set" || echo "Unset"

Notes:

• $#: says you the number of positional parameters.
• declare -p: gives you the definition of the variable passed as a parameter. If it exists, returns 0, if not, returns 1 and prints an error message.
• $?: gives you the status code of the last executed command.

Answer 2

I found a (much) better code to do this if you want to check for anything in $@.

if [[ $1 = "" ]]
then
  echo '$1 is blank'
else
  echo '$1 is filled up'
fi

Why this all? Everything in $@ exists in Bash, but by default it's blank, so test -z and test -n couldn't help you.

Update: You can also count number of characters in a parameters.

if [ ${#1} = 0 ]
then
  echo '$1 is blank'
else
  echo '$1 is filled up'
fi

Answer 3

To see if a variable is nonempty, I use

if [[ $var ]]; then ...       # `$var' expands to a nonempty string

The opposite tests if a variable is either unset or empty:

if [[ ! $var ]]; then ...     # `$var' expands to the empty string (set or not)

To see if a variable is set (empty or nonempty), I use

if [[ ${var+x} ]]; then ...   # `var' exists (empty or nonempty)
if [[ ${1+x} ]]; then ...     # Parameter 1 exists (empty or nonempty)

The opposite tests if a variable is unset:

if [[ ! ${var+x} ]]; then ... # `var' is not set at all
if [[ ! ${1+x} ]]; then ...   # We were called with no arguments

Answer 4

If var can be an array, then [ -z "${var+x}" ] parameter substitution is incorrect. To be really sure in Bash you need to use array syntax like [ "${#var[@]}" = 0 ], as shown below.

is-var-set () {
    results="\${var+x}=${var+x}\t\${#var[@]}=${#var[@]}"
    if [ -z "${var+x}" ] && [ "${#var[@]}" = 0 ]; then
        echo -e "$1: var's unset.\t$results"
    elif [ -n "${var+x}" ] && [ "${#var[@]}" != 0 ]; then
        echo -e "$1: var is set. \t$results"
    else
        echo -e "$1: Is var set? \t$results"
    fi
    unset var # so we don't have to do it everywhere else
}

In almost all cases, they agree. The only situation I've found where the array method is more accurate is when the variable is a non-empty array with position 0 unset (e.g., in tests 7 and A below). This disagreement comes from $var being shorthand for ${var[0]}, so [ -z "${var+x}" ] isn't checking the whole array.

Here are my test cases.

unset var;      is-var-set 1 # var unset
var='';         is-var-set 2 # var[0] set to ''
var=foo;        is-var-set 3 # var[0] set to 'foo'
var=();         is-var-set 4 # var unset (all indices)
var=(foo);      is-var-set 5 # var[0] set to 'foo'
var=([0]=foo);  is-var-set 6 # var[0] set to 'foo'
var=([1]=foo);  is-var-set 7 # var[0] unset, but var[1] set to 'foo'
declare -a var; is-var-set 8 # var empty, but declared as an array
declare -A var; is-var-set 9 # var empty, but declared as an associative array
declare -A var  # Because is-var-set() conveniently unsets it
var=([xz]=foo); is-var-set A # var[xz] set to 'foo', but var's otherwise empty
declare -a var  # Demonstrate that Bash knows about var, even when there's
declare -A var; is-var-set B # apparently no way to just _check_ its existence

Here's the output.

1: var's unset. ${var+x}=       ${#var[@]}=0
2: var is set.  ${var+x}=x      ${#var[@]}=1
3: var is set.  ${var+x}=x      ${#var[@]}=1
4: var's unset. ${var+x}=       ${#var[@]}=0
5: var is set.  ${var+x}=x      ${#var[@]}=1
6: var is set.  ${var+x}=x      ${#var[@]}=1
7: Is var set?  ${var+x}=       ${#var[@]}=1
8: var's unset. ${var+x}=       ${#var[@]}=0
9: var's unset. ${var+x}=       ${#var[@]}=0
A: Is var set?  ${var+x}=       ${#var[@]}=1
./foo.sh: line 26: declare: var: cannot convert indexed to associative array
B: var's unset. ${var+x}=       ${#var[@]}=0

In sum:

• ${var+x} parameter expansion syntax works just as well as ${#var[@]} array syntax in most cases, such as checking parameters to functions. The only way this case could break is if a future version of Bash adds a way to pass arrays to functions without converting contents to individual arguments.
• Array syntax is required for non-empty arrays (associative or not) with element 0 unset.
• Neither syntax explains what's going on if declare -a var has been used without assigning even a null value somewhere in the array. Bash still distinguishes the case somewhere (as seen in test B above), so this answer's not foolproof. Fortunately Bash converts exported environment variables into strings when running a program/script, so any issues with declared-but-unset variables will be contained to a single script, at least if it's not sourcing other scripts.

Answer 5

if [[ ${!xx[@]} ]] ; then echo xx is defined; fi

Answer 6

To check whether a variable is set with a non-empty value, use [ -n "$x" ], as others have already indicated.

Most of the time, it's a good idea to treat a variable that has an empty value in the same way as a variable that is unset. But you can distinguish the two if you need to: [ -n "${x+set}" ] ("${x+set}" expands to set if x is set and to the empty string if x is unset).

To check whether a parameter has been passed, test $#, which is the number of parameters passed to the function (or to the script, when not in a function) (see Paul's answer).