[FIXED] Why do I get this output from my while read loop?

Issue

I wrote a script that used information from a CSV file to create a string from it. The script goes through each line, generates a string from it and appends it to the string of the previous line. So I end up with a long string that consists of information from all the lines. The result of the script should be to print only the final string.

My problem: As you can see in the output in the terminal, the script outputs every step (in this case 3) strings and not just the final one. Why is it like this?

This is my CSV:

42342;home;2020-01-12;2020-01-13
45235;work;2020-04-12;2020-04-13
68787;photo;2020-05-12;2020-05-13

This is my bash script:

getPhotosCommand(){
    com=""
    header="ID;DIR;START_DATE;END_DATE" 
    
    while read line; do
        IFS=';' read -r -a array <<< "$line"

        dir=${array[2]}
        start_date=${array[3]}
        end_date=${array[4]}

        newCom="cli-search -d $dir -s $start_date -e $end_date >> photos.txt && "
        com=$com$newCom
    
    echo "$com cli-search download -d $dir -p @photos.txt"

    done < $file_new_photos
}

Output in terminal:

cli-search -d home -s 2020-01-12 -e 2020-01-13 >> photos.txt && cli-search download -d home -p @photos.txt
cli-search -d home -s 2020-01-12 -e 2020-01-13 >> photos.txt && cli-search -d home -s 2020-04-12 -e 2020-04-13 >> photos.txt && cli-search download -d home -p @photos.txt
cli-search -d home -s 2020-01-12 -e 2020-01-13 >> photos.txt && cli-search -d home -s 2020-04-12 -e 2020-04-13 >> photos.txt && cli-search -d home -s 2020-05-12 -e 2020-05-13 >> photos.txt &&  cli-search download -d home -p @photos.txt

Solution

Each line is appending to the "$com" variable due to this line:

com=$com$newCom

and your echo statement looks like it should be outside of the loop, ie. after the done line.

If you would like just the last line, then move the echo statement. If you would like 3 lines, change your echo statement to use $newCom instead of $com.

Answered By - SEoF

Answer Checked By - Candace Johnson (PHPFixing Volunteer)