SQL from korn shell

I am trying to get a value from a database. I couldn't get the SELECT call to just return a data value without the preceding newlines so I have the OUTPUT TO command sending the output to a file which I then read to eliminate the newlines. All this is initiated from an awk script which has stdout redirected to a file. The SELECT is in a korn shell script. The problem is: even if the SQL table query returns no value I get a newline printed to stdout(my file) and it's not being done by me. Somehow, a dbaccess SQL call automatically behind the scene puts a newline to stdout. Is there a way to supress this newline and better yet to get the original value from the SQL call into a variable. My code is below: # Arguments coming include database, field name being retreived, table to query # field to match key to and the key gotten from the log file. These arguments # must come in this order. dbaccess $1 - - << EOF 2>/dev/null OUTPUT TO sqlout WITHOUT HEADINGS SELECT $2 FROM $3 WHERE $4 = $5; EOF while read -r line do if [[ -z $line ]] then line="" continue fi print -n "$line" > testfile break done < sqlout rm -f sqlout -----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==---------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own