select(1)

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | EXAMPLES | ATTRIBUTES | SEE ALSO

NAME

case, switch, select- shell built-in functions to choose from among a list of actions

SYNOPSIS

sh

case word in [pattern[|pattern])actions;;...] esac


csh

switch (expression)
   case comparison1:
           actions
      breaksw
   case comparison2:
           actions
      breaksw
      ...
   default:
endsw

ksh

case word in [pattern[|pattern])actions;;...] esac
select identifier [in word...] ; do list ; done

DESCRIPTION

sh

A case command executes the actions associated with the first pattern that matches word. The form of the patterns is the same as that used for file-name generation except that a slash, a leading dot, or a dot immediately following a slash need not be matched explicitly.

csh

The c-shell uses the switch statement, in which each comparison is successively matched, against the specified expression, which is first command and filename expanded. The file metacharacters *, ? and [. . .] may be used in the case comparison, which are variable expanded. If none of the comparisons match before a "default" comparison is found, execution begins after the default comparison. Each case statement and the default statement must appear at the beginning of a line. The command breaksw continues execution after the endsw. Otherwise control falls through subsequent case and default statements as with C. If no comparison matches and there is no default, execution continues after the endsw.

case comparison: A compared-expression in a switch statement.

default: If none of the preceding comparisons match expression, then this is the default case in a switch statement. The default should come after all case comparisons. Any remaining commands on the command line are first executed.

breaksw exits from a switch, resuming after the endsw.

ksh

A case command executes the actions associated with the first pattern that matches word. The form of the patterns is the same as that used for file-name generation (see File Name Generation in ksh(1)).

A select command prints to standard error (file descriptor 2), the set of words, each preceded by a number. If in word . . . is omitted, then the positional parameters are used instead. The PS3 prompt is printed and a line is read from the standard input. If this line consists of the number of one of the listed words, then the value of the variable identifier is set to the word corresponding to this number. If this line is empty the selection list is printed again. Otherwise the value of the variable identifier is set to NULL. The contents of the line read from standard input is saved in the shell variable REPLY. The list is executed for each selection until a break or end-of-file is encountered. If the REPLY variable is set to NULL by the execution of list, then the selection list is printed before displaying the PS3 prompt for the next selection.

EXAMPLES

sh

STOPLIGHT=green
case $STOPLIGHT in
			red)	echo "STOP" ;;
			orange)	echo "Go with caution; prepare to stop" ;;
			green)	echo "you may GO" ;;
			blue|brown)	echo "invalid stoplight colors" ;;
esac

csh

In the C-shell, you must add NEWLINE characters as below.

set STOPLIGHT = green  
switch ($STOPLIGHT)  	
		case red:  		
					echo "STOP"  		
					breaksw
		case orange:  		
					echo "Go with caution; prepare to stop"  		
					breaksw  	
		case green:  		
					echo "you may GO"  		
					endsw  
endsw

ksh

STOPLIGHT=green
case $STOPLIGHT in
			red)	echo "STOP" ;;
			orange)	echo "Go with caution; prepare to stop" ;;
			green)	echo "you may GO" ;;
			blue|brown)	echo "invalid stoplight colors" ;;
esac

ATTRIBUTES

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

ATTRIBUTE TYPE	ATTRIBUTE VALUE
Availability	SUNWcsu

SEE ALSO

break(1), csh(1), ksh(1), sh(1), attributes(5)

SunOS 5.8  Last Revised 15 Apr 1994

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | EXAMPLES | ATTRIBUTES | SEE ALSO