Decimal numbers in bash script variables?

Massif · 11-07-2005, 06:33 PM

Is it possible to store fractional numbers in variables in bash scripts? I can only seem to save integers.

If it's not possible, does anyone know how I could do fractional calculations using only integers?

tangle · 11-07-2005, 06:47 PM

This is a shot in the dark for me, but did you try to put the numbers in quotes? It works for white spaces, not sure about decimal numbers.

Massif · 11-07-2005, 06:56 PM

Yeah I tried that.

I actually found my answer. Google

Bash itself cannot support floating point numbers, but there is a program called bc that can do decimal arithmetic.

here's the basic syntax

answer=$(echo "scale=9; $x *1.423" | bc)

The scale value is the number of decimal spaces you want. I'm still not sure if you can initialize a variable to a decimal number, but I got my stuff working.

chrism01 · 11-07-2005, 09:01 PM

You store anything as a "string", but when you want to calculate, you'll have to use bc ...