How to use if statements in bash scripting - bash

Question

I am trying to filter lines in a file using a for loop followed by an if statement with the following code:
#!/bin/bash
> oldFiles.txt
files=$(grep ' jane ' ~/data/list.txt | cut -d ' ' -f 3)
for file in $files; do
file="~${file}";
if [ -e "$file" ]; then
echo $file;
fi
done
Where list.txt is a list of names like this:
001 jane /data/jane_profile_07272018.doc
002 kwood /data/kwood_profile_04022017.doc
003 pchow /data/pchow_profile_05152019.doc
004 janez /data/janez_profile_11042019.doc
005 jane /data/jane_pic_07282018.jpg
006 kwood /data/kwood_pic_04032017.jpg
007 pchow /data/pchow_pic_05162019.jpg
008 jane /data/jane_contact_07292018.csv
009 kwood /data/kwood_contact_04042017.csv
010 pchow /data/pchow_contact_05172019.csv
I need to append the result in the file oldFiles.txt but i'm echo-ing it for now, yet it doesn't show anything on screen.
Everything looks perfect, for example when i replace "$file" in the if statement with an actual value of a file that exists (like this one /data/jane_profile_07272018.doc) then it works. Here's a list of files that exists in the file system:
jane_contact_07292018.csv
janez_profile_11042019.doc
kwood_profile_04022017.doc
pchow_pic_05162019.jpg
jane_profile_07272018.doc
kwood_pic_04032017.jpg
list.txt
test.txt
My script should echo only files that exist in the filesystem, hence the if statement.
What is there missing !?

Answer 1

You were almost there!!!
I would change a little bit your code to
#!/bin/bash
OLDFILES="odlfiles.txt"
FILES=$(egrep " jane " /data/list.txt | cut -d ' ' -f 3 )
#Alternative using awk with space as default delimiter to get the 3rd column ;)
#FILES=$(egrep " jane " /data/list.txt | awk '{print $3}' )
for file in $FILES; do
if [ -f $file ]; then
echo -e "[EXISTS]\tAppending to ${OLDFILES} path file: ${file}"
#Appending now to target file
echo $file >> $OLDFILES
fi
done
I think you are aware of the use of grep in order of filtering the content of the list.txt. I would recommend you to use in such cases egrep and then the pattern/regex which suits your needs the most.
In this case:
#!/bin/bash
OLDFILES="odlfiles.txt"
WORD2MATCH="jane"
FILES=$(egrep "\s${WORD2MATCH}\s" list.txt | awk '{print $3}')
for file in $FILES; do
if [ -f $file ]; then
echo -e "[EXISTS]\tAppending to ${OLDFILES} path file: ${file}"
echo $file >> $OLDFILES
fi
done
Or maybe in the compact form :)
#!/bin/bash
OLDFILES="odlfiles.txt"
WORD2MATCH="jane"
FILES=$(egrep "\s${WORD2MATCH}\s" list.txt | awk '{print $3}')
for file in $FILES; do
[ -f $file ] && echo $file >> $OLDFILES && echo -e "[APPENDED]\t${file}"
done