how to write function with nested commands

Question

I'm trying to write a find and cd function like so:

findcd () {
        cd "$(dirname "$(find '$1' -type '$2' -name '$3')")"
}

to be called like so:

find . f [FILE_NAME]

But it's seeing the dollar sign and expecting more arguments as oppose to executing what's inside. I'm just starting with writing aliases and functions, so any advice would be super helpful!

Your $1 etc. are single-quoted and thus not expanded. Please see What is the difference between the "...", '...', $'...', and $"..." quotes in the shell? and the citation in the second "quirk" in this answer which explains why "nested" double-quotes will work for you. Your function will still fail if find finds more than one file. — Kamil Maciorowski, Sep 23 '23 at 14:58

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 23 '23 at 15:16

Try this:

findcd () {
        cd "$(dirname "$(find "$1" -type "$2" -name "$3")")"
}

The problem with your original attempt is that you had the variables single quoted so they were not being expanded. Also note that this will not work if you have more than one find result.

how to write function with nested commands

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