Bash: If, Else If, Else Examples

Bash conditional statements are those which allow us to take some action towards various conditions. These statements implement blocks of code, based on whether the condition specified by the programmer evaluates to true or false. If it evaluates to true, executes a specific block of code otherwise move to the next condition.

There are various types of conditional statements in Bash:

1. if statement
2. if-else statement
3. if..elif..else statement
4. Nested

In this article, we will learn one of the conditional statements that is if, elseif, else along with few examples. In several other languages, the elif is written as “elseif” or “else if”. The elif statement helps us to make decisions among different choices.

The syntax of if, elseif, else is:

The “if’ keyword is followed by the condition you want to check. In this if-else-if conditional statement, the expressions are evaluated from top to bottom.

• This is followed by “then” keyword.
• After that, if an expression is evaluated to true, corresponding statements are executed. If the expressions is evaluated to false, the corresponding statement inside the “elif” will be executed.
• If none of the conditions is true, the statement inside the else blocked is executed.

Example 1

The elif (else if) is used for multiple if conditions. In case if the first condition goes false then check another “if” conditions. In the following example, we are taking input from the user and display corresponding statements.

• Use “if” condition to check if the marks are greater or equal to 80. If the condition evaluates to true, it will print “Excellent” using the “echo” command under “then” block.
• If the first condition evaluates to false, it will then use “elif” condition to check if marks are greater or equal to 70, if this evaluates to true, it will print “Good”.
• If none of the above conditions evaluates to true, it will move to the “else” condition and print “Satisfactory”.

Example 2:

For instance, we want to document the marks for a certain course. The total marks are 200 with 100 marks for Quizzes and 100 for assignments. We want to display the sum of assignments and quizzes while making sure the overall count does not exceed 200.

1. Take the input: quiz_marks and assignments_marks
2. Make sure none of the two inputs exceed the maximum possible marks for each of them i.e. 100 by using the “if” and “elif” conditions.
3. If either of the input quiz_marks or assignments_marks exceeds 100, display a warning message by using “echo” command.

• Please check the input marks for quiz
• Please check the input marks for assignments

4. If none of the above condition matches, i.e. neither of the marks exceeds 100, move to the “else” condition and display sum of marks by using the “echo” command.

Example 3:

Let’s take another example of a bank account program in which we want to have three separate outputs for 3 different situations:

• The balance is less than zero
• The balance is zero
• The balance is above zero

For instance, in the following program, use the if, elif, else statements to display different outputs in different scenarios:

1. Use “if” condition to check if the balance is less than zero. If this condition evaluates to true, display the message using the echo command: “Balance is less than zero, Please add more funds else you will be charged penalty”.
2. If the above condition does not match, then use “elif” condition to check if the balance is equal to zero. If it evaluates to true, display the message: Balance is zero, please add funds
3. If none of the above condition matches, use the “else” condition to display the: Your balance is above zero.

From the above examples of the conditional statement if, elif, else, you should now be able to understand how this conditional statement works and where it can be used in different scenarios. I hope you liked the article.