if elif else statement issues in Bash

Question

I can t seem to work out what the issue with the following if statement is in regards to the elif and then  Keep in mind the printf is still under development I just haven t been able to test it yet in the statement so is more than likely wrong   The error I m getting is     timezone string sh  line 14  syntax error near unexpected token  then    timezone string sh  line 14   then    And the statement is like so   if     seconds  -eq 0   then     timezone string  Z  elif    seconds  -gt 0   then     timezone string  printf   02d  02d   seconds 3600   seconds 60  60  else    echo  Unknown parameter  fi

User · Answer

I would recommend you having a look at the basics of conditioning in bash.

The symbol "[" is a command and must have a whitespace prior to it. If you don't give whitespace after your elif, the system interprets elif[ as a a particular command which is definitely not what you'd want at this time.

Usage:

elif(A COMPULSORY WHITESPACE WITHOUT PARENTHESIS)[(A WHITE SPACE WITHOUT PARENTHESIS)conditions(A WHITESPACE WITHOUT PARENTHESIS)]

In short, edit your code segment to:

elif [ "$seconds" -gt 0 ]

You'd be fine with no compilation errors. Your final code segment should look like this:

#!/bin/sh    
if [ "$seconds" -eq 0 ];then
       $timezone_string="Z"
    elif [ "$seconds" -gt 0 ]
    then
       $timezone_string=`printf "%02d:%02d" $seconds/3600 ($seconds/60)%60`
    else
       echo "Unknown parameter"
    fi

User · Answer

is a command  or a builtin in some shells   It must be separated by whitespace from the preceding statement   elif

User · Answer

There is a space missing between elif and     elif    seconds  -gt 0     should be  elif     seconds  -gt 0       As I see this question is getting a lot of views  it is important to indicate that the syntax to follow is   if   conditions                      meaning that spaces are needed around the brackets  Otherwise  it won t work  This is because   itself is a command   The reason why you are not seeing something like elif   command not found  or similar  is that after seeing if and then  the shell is looking for either elif  else  or fi   However it finds another then  after the mis-formatted elif     Only after having parsed the statement it would be executed  and an error message like elif   command not found would be output

User · Answer

You have some syntax issues with your script  Here is a fixed version      bin bash  if     seconds  -eq 0    then    timezone string  Z  elif     seconds  -gt 0    then    timezone string   printf   02d  02d     seconds 3600       seconds   60    60    else    echo  Unknown parameter  fi

User · Answer

Missing space between elif and   rest your program is correct  you need to correct it an check it out  here is fixed program      bin bash  if     seconds  -eq 0    then    timezone string  Z  elif     seconds  -gt 0    then    timezone string   printf   02d  02d     seconds 3600       seconds   60    60    else    echo  Unknown parameter  fi   useful link related to this bash if else statement

[bash] if, elif, else statement issues in Bash

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