Hi everyone,

I hope I am not reading more into this than was the original intent.

The CONDITIONAL EXPRESSIONS '-n string' and '-z string' both allow 'string'
to be
either a literal string(quoted or not) or a parameter.

Parameter Expansion Flags 'r' and 'l' for 'string1' and 'string2' appear
only to allow literal
strings. And, quotes are considered part of said string.  The only special
character that
I found that works, so far, is a backslash(\).

Is this an inconsistent use of the term string, or am I missing something?

I was hoping to use a parameter as 'string?' to generate padding, but ended
up using a
loop instead.

Is there any reason why a parameter wouldn't work other than the code not
supporting it?

Thanks,

Jim Murphy