Did you actually try those?

Yes I did. Did you? 

    $ echo "hello" > data1
    $ echo "world" > data2
    $ file="data1 data2"
    $ cat $file | wc -l
          2
    $ < $file | wc -l
    bash: $file: ambiguous redirect
          0

[download]

I suspect not, because you'd need an "eval" in your script to get the shell to do another round of whitespace parsing after the variable is interpolated, and that's a Very Good Thing.

Really? I've been writing constructs of the form: 

    FILES="file1 file2 file3 file4 file5"
    for file in $FILES
    do  ... something with $file ...
    done

[download]
for a couple of decades. And now you're telling me it never worked???? Now, you're free to believe me, but may I quote from the beginning of perl's Configure? 
paths='/bin /usr/bin /usr/local/bin /usr/ucb /usr/local /usr/lbin'
paths="$paths /opt/bin /opt/local/bin /opt/local /opt/lbin"
paths="$paths /usr/5bin /etc /usr/gnu/bin /usr/new /usr/new/bin /usr/n
+bin"
paths="$paths /opt/gnu/bin /opt/new /opt/new/bin /opt/nbin"
paths="$paths /sys5.3/bin /sys5.3/usr/bin /bsd4.3/bin /bsd4.3/usr/ucb"
paths="$paths /bsd4.3/usr/bin /usr/bsd /bsd43/bin /usr/ccs/bin"
paths="$paths /etc /usr/lib /usr/ucblib /lib /usr/ccs/lib"
paths="$paths /sbin /usr/sbin /usr/libexec"
paths="$paths /system/gnu_library/bin"
        
for p in $paths
do  
        case "$p_$PATH$p_" in
        *$p_$p$p_*) ;;
        *) test -d $p && PATH=$PATH$p_$p ;;
        esac
done

[download]
No extra eval happening here.

I hand out the Useless Use of Cat Award precisely because of code like yours, where a cat is indeed completely useless.

Well, my code works and your suggested alternative does not work. So I get two things: an award, and working code. Good for me.

In reply to Re^5: Sort Large Files by Anonymous Monk
in thread Sort Large Files by Velaki

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