case(1)                                                         case(1)

  case

  NAME

    case - conditionally execute one of a number of statement lists

  SYNOPSIS

    case word in [[(] pattern [| pattern]... ) list ;; ] ... esac

  DESCRIPTION

    This command is a Korn-shell built-in command.

    The case statement attempts to match word against the specified patterns;
    the list associated with the first successfully matched pattern is
    executed. Patterns used in case statements are the same as those used for
    file-name patterns, except that the restrictions regarding . and / are
    dropped. Note that any unquoted space before and after a pattern is
    stripped; any space with a pattern must be quoted. Both the word and the
    patterns are subject to parameter, command, and arithmetic substitution,
    as well as tilde substitution.

    For historical reasons, open and close braces ({}) can be used instead of
    in and esac (for example, case $foo { *) echo bar; }). The exit status of
    a case statement is that of the executed list; if no list is executed, the
    exit status is zero.