These solutions are obviously better readable. Thank you. Bart Schaefer schrieb am 17:54 Mittwoch, 16.Juli 2014: On Jul 16,  2:26pm, Sepp Tannhuber wrote: } }  my_variable="${$([[ -w $PWD ]] || echo 0):+my_value}" Perhaps:   [[ -w $PWD ]] && my_variable='' || my_variable="my_value"