Comparing numbers in Bash

Question

I\'m starting to learn about writing scripts for the bash terminal, but I can\'t work out how to get the comparisons to work properly. The script I\'m using is:

Answer 1

The bracket stuff (e.g., [[ $a -gt $b ]] or (( $a > $b )) ) isn't enough if you want to use float numbers as well; it would report a syntax error. If you want to compare float numbers or float number to integer, you can use (( $(bc <<< "...") )).

For example,

a=2.00
b=1

if (( $(bc <<<"$a > $b") )); then 
    echo "a is greater than b"
else
    echo "a is not greater than b"
fi

You can include more than one comparison in the if statement. For example,

a=2.
b=1
c=1.0000

if (( $(bc <<<"$b == $c && $b < $a") )); then 
    echo "b is equal to c but less than a"
else
    echo "b is either not equal to c and/or not less than a"
fi

That's helpful if you want to check if a numeric variable (integer or not) is within a numeric range.