Help on shell script question

ok im trying to write a string to a file. dont want to append it, and the string cannot come from another file so its basically....

string>file

everytime you put a new string it has to rewrite over the file hence the > instead of the >>...

am i using the wrong command or something?? because i cannot figure it out!


i tried using every cat and exec command possible, i figured out sorta one way but i cannot close the cat!

i had....

mystring="BLAHBLAH"
cat > outfile
$MYSTRING
???????

But now i dont know how to close it from within a shell scropt. i know its control - d if you type it from the prompt but from inside a bash script i have no idea... any help appreciated thanks

1) *nix is case sensitive, aaa and AAA are not the same
2) you are trying to use a 'here-document' the syntax is
cmd >output << stopflag
exemple:
cat >xxx <<STOPME
aaaaa
bbbbb
ccccc
STOPME
3) why not simply: echo $XXX >xxx