Unix - Shell Decision Making, Shell Loop Types, Shell Loop Control.

Unix Shell supports conditional statements which are used to perform different actions based on different conditions. We will now understand two decision-making statements here −

• The if...else statement
• The case...esac statement

The if...else statements

If else statements are useful decision-making statements which can be used to select an option from a given set of options.

Unix Shell supports following forms of if…else statement −

• if...fi statement
• if...else...fi statement
• if...elif...else...fi statement

Most of the if statements check relations using relational operators discussed in the previous chapter.

The case...esac Statement

You can use multiple if...elif statements to perform a multiway branch. However, this is not always the best solution, especially when all of the branches depend on the value of a single variable.

Unix Shell supports case...esac statement which handles exactly this situation, and it does so more efficiently than repeated if...elif statements.

There is only one form of case...esac statement which has been described in detail here −

• case...esac statement

The case...esac statement in the Unix shell is very similar to the switch...case statement we have in other programming languages like C or C++ and PERL, etc.

Unix - Shell Loop Types

• The while loop
• The for loop
• The until loop
• The select loop

You will use different loops based on the situation. For example, the while loop executes the given commands until the given condition remains true; the until loop executes until a given condition becomes true.

Once you have good programming practice you will gain the expertise and thereby, start using appropriate loop based on the situation. Here, while and for loops are available in most of the other programming languages like C, C++ and PERL, etc.

Nesting Loops

All the loops support nesting concept which means you can put one loop inside another similar one or different loops. This nesting can go up to unlimited number of times based on your requirement.

Here is an example of nesting while loop. The other loops can be nested based on the programming requirement in a similar way −

Nesting while Loops

It is possible to use a while loop as part of the body of another while loop.

Syntax

while command1 ; # this is loop1, the outer loop
do
   Statement(s) to be executed if command1 is true

   while command2 ; # this is loop2, the inner loop
   do
      Statement(s) to be executed if command2 is true
   done

   Statement(s) to be executed if command1 is true
done

Example

Here is a simple example of loop nesting. Let's add another countdown loop inside the loop that you used to count to nine −

#!/bin/sh

a=0
while [ "$a" -lt 10 ]    # this is loop1
do
   b="$a"
   while [ "$b" -ge 0 ]  # this is loop2
   do
      echo -n "$b "
      b=`expr $b - 1`
   done
   echo
   a=`expr $a + 1`
done

This will produce the following result. It is important to note how echo -n works here. Here -n option lets echo avoid printing a new line character.

0
1 0
2 1 0
3 2 1 0
4 3 2 1 0
5 4 3 2 1 0
6 5 4 3 2 1 0
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 

Unix - Shell Loop Control

• The break statement
• The continue statement

The infinite Loop

All the loops have a limited life and they come out once the condition is false or true depending on the loop.
A loop may continue forever if the required condition is not met. A loop that executes forever without terminating executes for an infinite number of times. For this reason, such loops are called infinite loops.

Example

Here is a simple example that uses the while loop to display the numbers zero to nine −

#!/bin/sh

a=10

until [ $a -lt 10 ]
do
   echo $a
   a=expr $a + 1`
done

This loop continues forever because a is always greater than or equal to 10 and it is never less than 10.

The break Statement

The break statement is used to terminate the execution of the entire loop, after completing the execution of all of the lines of code up to the break statement. It then steps down to the code following the end of the loop.

Syntax

The following break statement is used to come out of a loop −

break

The break command can also be used to exit from a nested loop using this format −

break n

Here n specifies the n^th enclosing loop to the exit from.

Example

Here is a simple example which shows that loop terminates as soon as a becomes 5 −

#!/bin/sh

a=0

while [ $a -lt 10 ]
do
   echo $a
   if [ $a -eq 5 ]
   then
      break
   fi
   a=`expr $a + 1`
done

Upon execution, you will receive the following result −

0
1
2
3
4
5

Here is a simple example of nested for loop. This script breaks out of both loops if var1 equals 2 and var2 equals 0 −

#!/bin/sh

for var1 in 1 2 3
do
   for var2 in 0 5
   do
      if [ $var1 -eq 2 -a $var2 -eq 0 ]
      then
         break 2
      else
         echo "$var1 $var2"
      fi
   done
done

Upon execution, you will receive the following result. In the inner loop, you have a break command with the argument 2. This indicates that if a condition is met you should break out of outer loop and ultimately from the inner loop as well.

1 0
1 5

The continue statement

The continue statement is similar to the break command, except that it causes the current iteration of the loop to exit, rather than the entire loop.
This statement is useful when an error has occurred but you want to try to execute the next iteration of the loop.

Syntax

continue

Like with the break statement, an integer argument can be given to the continue command to skip commands from nested loops.

continue n

Here n specifies the n^th enclosing loop to continue from.

Example

The following loop makes use of the continue statement which returns from the continue statement and starts processing the next statement −

#!/bin/sh

NUMS="1 2 3 4 5 6 7"

for NUM in $NUMS
do
   Q=`expr $NUM % 2`
   if [ $Q -eq 0 ]
   then
      echo "Number is an even number!!"
      continue
   fi
   echo "Found odd number"
done

Upon execution, you will receive the following result −

Found odd number
Number is an even number!!
Found odd number
Number is an even number!!
Found odd number
Number is an even number!!
Found odd number

 

Anurag