Bash check if string starts with character such as #

My bash shell script read a config file line-by-line using a bash while loop. I need to check if a string stored in $var starts with some value such as # character. If so I need to ignore that value and read the next line from my config file. How do I check if variable begins with # in bash shell scripting running on a Linux or Unix-like operating systems?

Introduction – In bash, we can check if a string begins with some value using regex comparison operator =~. One can test that a bash variable starts with a string or character in bash efficiently using any one of the following methods.

How to check if a string begins with some value in bash

Let us define a shell variable called vech as follows:
vech="Bus"
To check if string “Bus” stored in $vech starts with “B”, run:
[[ $vech = B* ]] && echo "Start with B"
The [[ used to execute the conditional command. It checks if $vech starts with “B” followed by any character. Set vech to something else and try it again:
vech="Car"
[[ $vech = B* ]] && echo "Start with B"
[[ $vech = B* ]] && echo "Start with B" || echo "Not matched"

Bash check if string starts with character using if statement

if..else..fi allows to make choice based on the success or failure of a command:

#!/bin/bash
input="xBus"
 
if [[ $input = B* ]]
then
	echo "Start with B"
else
	echo "No match"
fi

Bash check if a variable string begins with # value

The syntax is as follows to read a file line-by-line:

#!/bin/bash
input="/path/to/txt/file"
while IFS= read -r var
do
  echo "$var"
done < "$input"

Let us add check to see if $var starts with “#” in bash:

#!/bin/bash
input="/path/to/txt/file"
while IFS= read -r var
do
  #
  # if value of $var starts with #, ignore it
  #
  [[ $var =~ ^#.* ]] && continue
  echo "$var"
done < "$input"

The continue statement resumes the next iteration of the enclosing while loop, so it skips rest of the commands when commented line found out.

How to use regex comparison operator =~ if string starts with character

The syntax is as follows to see if $var starts with “#”:

if [[ "$var" =~ ^#.*  ]]; then
    echo "yes"
fi

Therefor the following is an updated version:

while IFS='|' read -r t u
do
        # ignore all config line starting with '#'
	[[ $t =~ ^#.* ]] && continue
        echo "Working on $t and $u" 
 
done < "$INPUT_FILE"

How to check if a string begins with some value in bash

The case statement is good alternative to multilevel if-then-else-fi statement. It enable you to match several values against one variable. It is easier to read and write:

#!/bin/bash
# set default to 'Bus' but accept the CLI arg for testing
input="${1:-Bus}" 
echo -n "$input starts with 'B' : "
case "$input" in
    B*)
            echo "yes";;
     *)
            echo "no";;
esac

Conclusion

You learned how to check if a string begins with some value using various methods. For more info read the bash command man page here.