Bash Week — FizzBuzz but Cursed (PlingPlangPlong Edition)

This is an advanced FizzBuzz-style exercise, adapted for Bash with O(1) performance. No loops. No Python crutches. Just raw shell logic.

Description:

For a given input, if it's divisible by:

  • 3 → output "Pling"
  • 5 → output "Plang"
  • 7 → output "Plong"

If none of the above, print the number itself.

Initial logic:

This simple program checks if the input number is equal to a modulo of either 3, 5 or 7. This operation however does not take the case where there's several true cases.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

if [ $(("$1" % 3)) -eq 0 ]; then
  echo "Pling"
elif [ $(("$1" % 5)) -eq 0 ]; then
  echo "Plang"
elif [ $(("$1" % 7)) -eq 0 ]; then
  echo "Plong"
else
  echo "$1"
fi

New Version:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

sound=""
(($1 % 3 == 0)) && sound+="Pling"
(($1 % 5 == 0)) && sound+="Plang"
(($1 % 7 == 0)) && sound+="Plong"

echo "${sound:-$1}

Notes:

  • Uses string concatenation to combine results from multiple modulo checks.
  • Uses Bash parameter expansion ${sound:-$1} to fallback to the number if sound is empty.
echo "${sound: -$1}"

  • It’s Bash's way of saying: “If sound is unset or null, use $1 instead.”

  • It’s lazy evaluation like Python’s x if x else y, but uglier and more prone to being misread after midnight.

  • C equivalent:

x ? x : y