title: What is the use case of noop [:] in bash?
body: <p>I searched for noop in bash (:), but was not able to find any good information. What is the exact purpose or use case of this operator?</p>
  
  <p>I tried following and it's working like this for me:</p>
  
  <pre><code>[mandy@root]$ a=11
  [mandy@root]$ b=20
  [mandy@root]$ c=30
  [mandy@root]$ echo $a; : echo $b ; echo $c
  10
  30
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Please let me know, any use case of this operator in real time or any place where it is mandatory to use it.</p>