User Commands                                             case(1)

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  com-
     parison  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.

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User Commands                                             case(1)

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

     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:

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User Commands                                             case(1)

                              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  attri-
     butes:

     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Availability                | SUNWcsu                     |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|

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

SunOS 5.8           Last change: 15 Apr 1994                    3