floating point operations in shell scripts

echo "scale=4; 3 / 5" | bc

allows you to use floating point operations in shell scripts

Sample Output

.6000

By: foob4r

2009-08-21 21:51:46

echo bc floating point

5 Alternatives + Submit Alt

floating point operations in shell scripts

-l auto-selects many more digits (but you can round/truncate in your head, right) plus it loads a few math functions like sin(). Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
.56464247339503535720
```
3

bc -l <<< s(3/5)

akg240 · 2009-09-02 15:41:39 9
floating point operations in shell scripts

using bc is for sissies. dc is much better :-D Polish notation will rule the world... Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
.60000
```
2

echo "5 k 3 5 / p" | dc

xamaco · 2009-09-03 00:21:54 3
floating point operations in shell scripts

Calculator for shell. Similar performance and basic usage as 'bc', but with more advanced features. Not installed on most systems by default. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
0.6
```
1

wcalc -q <<< '3/5'

smolav · 2010-07-07 20:31:21 6
floating point operations in shell scripts

a simple trick to do floating point operations in shell, use awk. You can evaluate any complicated expressions which can be evaluated in C. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
echo $val  #2.85714
```
0

exp="(2+3.0)/7.0*2^2"; val=$(awk "BEGIN {print $exp}" /dev/null)

JeffChen · 2010-03-01 02:47:22 4
floating point operations in shell scripts
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-8

echo $((3.0/5.0))

andrew112358 · 2009-09-03 16:35:09 7

What Others Think

rahimhh21 · 109 weeks and 4 days ago

Perfecthomepugs · 101 weeks and 1 day ago

pugpuppies95 · 63 weeks and 2 days ago

What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

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