The String.format() method provides versatile formatting capabilities. This tutorial tries to present these capabilities in a accessible manner. The format string A format string can contain zero, one, or more format specifiers . The general form of a format specifier is: %[argument_index$] [flags] [width] [.precision]co... where things in square brackets are optional, and conversion is a character indicating the conversion to be applied to the corresponding variable value. The only required characters in the format specifier is the percent sign % and the conversion character. A simple example: public static void simpleFormat() { System.out... The Argument index The argument index is specified by a number, terminated by the dollar sign $ . The same argument may be repeated multiple times in a format string. Unindexed...

The Unix shell passes these parameters to the shell script: Variable Meaning $* A single string representing all command line arguments separated by $IFS (internal field separator, usually a space) $@ A sequence of strings representing the command line arguments. $1,$2...$n $1 is the first argument, $2 is the second argument, and so on... $0 The name of the script itself. $# The number of arguments. Example shell script ( sharg.sh ): #!/bin/sh echo $# arguments passed to $0: $@ ... Output for ./sharg.sh "a b c d" : 1 arguments passed to ./sharg.sh: a b c d here ... Output for ./sharg.sh a "b c" d : 3 arguments passed to ./sharg.sh: a b c d here ...

It's quite easy for Perl to open a pipe and read from it: $file = "nospace.txt"; open(IN, "cat $file |") ... But the code breaks when the file name contains a space: # This does not work! $file = "yes space.txt"; ... On Windows, these don't work either: # This does not work! $file = "yes space.txt"; ... You need to use a technique called Safe Pipe Opens : $file = "yes space.txt"; $prog = "cat"; ...

Variable Meaning $_ The default or implicit variable. @_ Within a subroutine the array @_ contains the parameters passed to that subroutine. $a, $b Special package variables when using sort() $<digit> Contains the subpattern from the corresponding set of capturing parentheses from the last pattern match, not counting patterns matched in nested blocks that have been exited already. $. Current line number for the last filehandle accessed. $/ The input record separator, newline by default. $| If set to nonzero, forces a flush right away and after every write or print on the currently selected output channel. Default is 0 (regardless of whether the channel is really buffered by the system or not; $| tells you only whether you've asked Perl explicitly to flush after...

Variables set automatically by shell: Variable Description $# Number of command-line arguments. $- Options currently in effect (arguments supplied to sh or to set). $? Exit value of last executed command. $$ Process number of current process. $! Process number of last background command. $0 First word; that is, command name. $n Individual arguments on command line (positional parameters). The Bourne shell allows only nine parameters to be referenced directly (n = 1-9); the Korn shell allows n to be greater than 9 if specified as ${n}. $* All arguments on command line ("$1 $2..."). $@ All arguments on command line, individually quoted ("$1" "$2" ...). Variables set automatically by Korn shell: Variable Description ERRNO Error number of last system call that failed. LINENO Current...

Variable Description $0 The name of the ruby script file $* The command line arguments $$ Ruby interpreter's process ID $? Exit status of last executed child process $_ String last read by gets $. Line number last read by interpreter $! Last error message $@ Location of error $& String last matched by regexp $~ The last regexp match, as an array of subexpressions $n the nth subexpression in the last match (same as $~ ) $= Sase-insensitivity flag $/ Input record separator $\ Output record separator

To loop through an envionment variable: @echo off set a=1 2 3 for %%i in (%a%) d... To loop through the command line arguments: @echo off for %%i in (%*) do echo %%i