if file name such:
ATK_7B1_WIP_20041116160700.9.xml.dat
ATK_7B1_WIP_20041116160700.93474039283928384.xml.d at
so how can i cut to only get the year,month and year only

such:1) 200411
2) 2004

let say my program such this:

for FILE in ls ATK*.dat
do
curr_year=$(date +%Y)
curr_month=$(date +%Y%m)
file_year=<filename just have the year>
file_month=<filename that just have year and month>

if [ "$curr_year" = "$file_year" ]
then
if [ 'expr $curr_month - $file_month >= 3 ]
then
mv $FILE /u006/r45647/Izza/xsltOutput/archiveprocess
<move the file to another directory>

fi

fi

done

can we use sen to pass the variable for $file_year or file month?
or it's easy use the cut only?

yearMonth:
echo 'ATK_7B1_WIP_20041116160700.9.xml.dat' | sed -e 's/.*_\([^_]\{6,6\}\).*/\1/g'

year:
echo 'ATK_7B1_WIP_20041116160700.9.xml.dat' | sed -e 's/.*_\([^_]\{4,4\}\).*/\1/g'

it done well if i dont pass the variable..
but, how to do that?

file_year=$FILE | sed -e 's/.*_\([^_]\{6,6\}\).*/\1/g'

it cannot work..
coz i need to use back the valu to make comparison
please

file_year=`echo "${FILE} | sed -e 's/.*_\([^_]\{4,4\}\).*/\1/g'`
file_month=`echo "${FILE} | sed -e 's/.*_\([^_]\{6,6}\).*/\1/g'`

the program is like this actually:

for FILE in ls ATK*.dat
do
curr_year=$(date +%Y)
#curr_month=$(date +%Y%m)
curr_month=200412<just for example>
file_year=`echo "${FILE} | sed -e 's/.*_\([^_]\{4,4\}\).*/\1/g'`
file_month=`echo "${FILE} | sed -e 's/.*_\([^_]\{6,6}\).*/\1/g'`

if [ "$curr_year" = "$file_year" ]
then
if [ `expr $curr_month - $file_month` -ge 3 ]
then
mv $FILE /u006/r45647/
echo "this $FILE moved to r45647 directory"
fi
else
echo " please make sure all file names"

fi

done

i still cannot used the sed...
can it be done that way?

seems like you're using ksh - make sure you specify the interpreter at the top of the file.
Also be careful copy/pasting the code and indent the code appropriately.
There's no need for 'ls ATK*.dat' - this is UUOL [Useless Use Of Ls].

Here's something to try: