BibTool Manual Reference Manual Format Specification Alternatives

Alternatives

Alternatives (disjunctives) are separated by the hash mark (#). The general form is

alternative₁ # alternative₂ # ... # alternative_n

The alternatives are evaluated from left to right. The first one that succeeds terminates the processing of all alternatives with success. If no alternative is successful then the whole construct fails.

An alternative can be empty. The empty alternative succeeds without any other effect.

The example given in subsection If-Then-Else can be also written as

%N(author) # --no-author--

If the author field is accessible the first alternative succeeds and terminates the construct. Otherwise the constant string is used. This constant string always succeeds.

BibTool Manual Reference Manual Format Specification Alternatives