character to ascii conversion

[wdellin]

Trying to take a character in a variable and change it to ascii value. Found a thread wher Ygor replied with the following:

read
echo $REPLY| od -b | read x y z
let ASCII=8#${y}
echo $ASCII

This converts the value you enter to a number but I cannot figure out the commands that is doing the work. What is the od -b in line 2 and what is line 3 doing. Can someone please explain?

thanks in advance.

 

[stefanwagner]

line 2:
man od:
> od - dump files in octal and other formats
> ...


seeking a job as java-programmer in Berlin:

http://home.arcor.de/hirnstrom/bewerbung

 

[wdellin]

thanks stefanwagner,sometimes the obvious is overlooked.

I'll check it out.