Branch based on the value of an expression.
case {{$tocount}} in {{words}}) {{wc -w README}}; ;; {{lines}}) {{wc -l README}}; ;; esac
case {{$tocount}} in {{[wW]|words}}) {{wc -w README}}; ;; {{[lL]|lines}}) {{wc -l README}}; ;; *) {{echo "what?"}}; ;; esac