How do I store information in a .dat file

Question

I have been struggling to read information and store it into a .dat file, but everytime I run my bash script it seems to run ok but the .dat file I have made is empty.

Here is my code:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Please enter student's name:"
read student
echo "$student"
((count = 0))

while read students[$count] ; do
((count++))
done < sorted.dat

Am I missing something obvious?

Answer 1

Maybe you have to store student in the file?

#!/bin/bash
echo "Please enter student's name:"
read student
echo "$student" >> sorted.dat
((count = 0))

while read students[$count] ; do
((count++))
done < sorted.dat

Answer 2

.dat file is like a simple text file you can read and write in a normal way

echo "Today's date is" date >> stored.dat
date >> stored.dat
cat stored.dat