Question

Is it possible to do something akin to the following in a bash script?:

totaltrackseval=`if [[ $totaltracks -ge 0]]; then; echo '-N $totaltracks'; else; echo 'elsetext'; fi`

If so, how?

Answer 1

This will do what you want. You almost got it right the first time. Note the fact that I substituted your single quotes for double ones. Variable substitution doesn’t work inside single quotes. Also, when you use the brackets for tests they require whitespace padding on the inside.

totaltrackseval=`if [ $totaltracks -ge 0 ];
                then
                    echo "-N $totaltracks"
                else
                    echo "elsetext"
                fi`

If you prefer a single-line implementation:

totaltrackseval=`if [ $totaltracks -ge 0 ]; then echo "-N $totaltracks"; else echo "elsetext"; fi`