Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!news.cs.indiana.edu!nstn.ns.ca!aucs.acadiau.ca!peter
From: peter@aucs.AcadiaU.ca (Peter Steele)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: When is an expression "true"?
Message-ID: <1991May8.173342.2514@aucs.AcadiaU.ca>
Date: 8 May 91 17:33:42 GMT
Article-I.D.: aucs.1991May8.173342.2514
Reply-To: peter@aucs.acadiau.ca (Peter Steele)
Distribution: na
Organization: School of Computer Science, Acadia Univ., Nova Scotia
Lines: 26

I wrote a simple Cshell script the other day that looked something
like this:

set f=`ls`
if $#f > 1 then
   ...
endif

In other words, I only wanted the if statement to be executed if there
was more than one file in the directory. This did not work; it went ahead
and did the body of the if statement even when there was only one file 
present. To file the problem, I added some brackets:

if ($#f > 1) then
   ...

Why are parentheses needed here? I know I've done other stuff that hasn't
needed parentheses, e.g.

if $status != 0 then
   ...

What's the story?
-- 
Peter Steele  Postmaster  peter.steele@acadiau.ca   Tel: 902-542-2201
Software Analyst, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS  Fax: 902-542-7224