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SC2051.md

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Pattern: Use of variable in Bash brace range expansion

Issue: -

Description

In Bash, brace expansion happens before variable expansion. This means that brace expansion will not account for variables.

For integers, use an arithmetic for loop instead. For zero-padded numbers or letters, use of eval may be warranted:

from="a" to="m"
for c in $(eval "echo {$from..$to}"); do echo "$c"; done

or more carefully (if from/to could be user input, or if the brace expansion could have spaces):

from="a" to="m"
while IFS= read -d '' -r c
do
  echo "Read $c"
done <  <(eval "printf '%s\0' $(printf "{%q..%q}.jpg" "$from" "$to")")

Example of incorrect code:

for i in {1..$n}
do
  echo "$i"
done

Example of correct code:

for ((i=0; i<n; i++))
do
  echo "$i"
done

Further Reading