One line If-then-else block in csh possible?

[Joe Wells]

In article <1991Feb13.180658.16244 at msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> harichan at eecae.uucp (Ronald Harichandran) writes:

  Is it possible to have an if-then-else-endif block on a single line [in csh]?

Yes, but it's a rather twisted/convoluted kludge:

  if ( [boolean condition] ) set status=1 && [else clause] || [then clause]

I always forget that I have to put the else clause first or negate the
condition.  Here's a simple example of this technique used in an alias:

    alias h \
    "  if ('\!*' != '') set status=1 && hi \\
    || if ('\!*' !~ [1-9]*) set status=1 && hi -\!* \\
    || history | grep -i '\!*' | tail"
    alias hi 'history | grep ............ | tail'

If you're just starting with the csh and you haven't already invested a
lot of time in customizing it, you're better of switching to bash or ksh.

-- 
Enjoy,

Joe Wells <jbw at bu.edu>