Re: Parsing error when "case" in "for" in $()

[Steven W. Orr]

On 09/11/12 17:20, quoth Chris F.A. Johnson:
> On Tue, 11 Sep 2012, Benoit Vaugon wrote:
> ...
> > Description:
> >  Cannot use "case" construction in a "for" loop in a $() sub shell.
> >  Should work but produces parsing error.
> >
> > Repeat-By:
> >  echo $(for x in whatever; do case y in *) echo 42;; esac; done)
>
>     The closing parentheses in the case statement is being interpreted as the
>     closing for $(
>
> > Fix:
> >  Probably by fixing the bash parser.
>
>     Balance the parentheses in the case statement:
>
> echo $(for x in whatever; do case y in (*) echo 42;; esac; done)

Thanks. I didn't know that the opening paren was optional and was needed in 
such a case as a disambiguator. Very nice. And if you really want to match 
something that starts with an open paren, just backslash it.

As a style issue, it makes me wonder if I should always use the optional open 
paren as syntactic sugar...

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