Shell argument examples (bash, sh, zsh)

args.sh

echo "\$# is the number of arguments"
echo "$# arguments"
echo

echo "\$* is list of arguments joined into a string"
echo $*
echo

echo "\$@ is a sequence of strings, well suited to a for loop"
echo $@
echo

echo "typical for loop to iterate all arguments
(does not handle arguments with spaces)
----------
for ARG in \$@
do
  echo \$ARG
done
----------"
for ARG in $@
do
  echo $ARG
done
echo "----------"
echo

echo "another way to iterate arguments
(This one handles arguments with spaces properly)
----------
while [ \$# -gt 0 ]
do
  echo \$1
  shift
done"
echo "----------"
while [ $# -gt 0 ]
do
  echo $1
  shift
done
echo "----------"
echo