Re: ternary operator

[Chris F.A. Johnson]

In article <20020623085407.GA15296@caliban.org>, Ian Macdonald wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> The bash man page lists the ternary operator:
> 
> expr?expr:expr
> 
> However, I can't figure out how one is supposed to use it in bash.

    Note that this is in the "ARITHMETIC EVALUATION" section of the man page.

> I would expect it to be analagous to the same operator in C:
> 
> $ [ foo = 1 ] ? echo yes : echo no
> bash: [: missing `]'
> 
> but this is clearly not what bash is expecting.
> 
> What am I missing?

    Use it where you would use arithmetic evaluation:

    $ q=5
    $ echo $(( q == 2  ? 3 : 4 ))
    4
    $ q=2
    $ echo $(( q == 2  ? 3 : 4 ))
    3


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        Chris F.A. Johnson                              bq933@torfree.net
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