newbie here. i am writing a bash script and when i use wc -l filename to get a line count it returns the line count and the file name. i would like to get the line count and store it in a variable. also i need to get the process id of the script and store that in a variable too. any help is greatly appreciated. thank you

At least your up front about needing help with homework however like most sites we are not here to do it for you. I see no problems with asking for specific help. First there us lots of information that can be found on BASH scripting by searching the web including variables.

http://www.gnulamp.com/bashprogramming.html