linux shell-----case statement

The case Statement

The case statement is good alternative to Multilevel if-then-else-fi statement. It enable you to match several values against one variable. Its easier to read and write.

Syntax:

           case  $variable-name  in
                pattern1)   command
                                ...
                                ..
                                command;;
                pattern2)   command
                                ...
                                ..
                                command;;
                patternN)   command
                                ...
                                ..
                                command;;
                *)             command
                                ...
                                ..
                                command;;
           esac

The  $variable-name  is compared against the patterns until a match is found. The shell then executes all the statements up to the two semicolons that are next to each other. The default is *) and its executed if no match is found. For e.g. write script as follows:

# if no vehicle name is given
# i.e. -z $1 is defined and it is NULL
#
# if no command line arg

if [ -z $1 ]
then
  rental="*** Unknown vehicle ***"
elif [ -n $1 ]
then
# otherwise make first arg as rental
  rental=$1
fi

case $rental in
   "car") echo "For $rental Rs.20 per k/m";;
   "van") echo "For $rental Rs.10 per k/m";;
   "jeep") echo "For $rental Rs.5 per k/m";;
   "bicycle") echo "For $rental 20 paisa per k/m";;
   *) echo "Sorry, I can not gat a $rental for you";;
esac

First script will check, that if $1(first command line argument) is given or not, if NOT given set value of rental variable to "*** Unknown vehicle ***",if command line arg is supplied/given set value of rental variable to given value (command line arg). The $rental is compared against the patterns until a match is found.
For first test run its match with van and it will show output " For van Rs.10 per k/m. "
For second test run it print, " For car Rs.20 per k/m ".
And for last run, there is no match for Maruti-800, hence default i.e. *) is executed and it prints, " Sorry, I can not gat a Maruti-800 for you ".
Note  that esac is always required to indicate end of case statement.