The tag has no wiki summary.

learn more… | top users | synonyms

11
votes
6answers
14k views

Is there a way to get the min, max, median, and average of a list of numbers in a single command?

I have a list of numbers in a file, one per line. How can I get the minimum, maximum, median and average values? I want to use the results in a bash script. Although my immediate situation is for ...
7
votes
7answers
656 views

Doing simple math on the command line using bash functions: $1 divided by $2 (using bc perhaps)

Sometimes I need to divide one number by another. It would be great if I could just define a bash function for this. So far, I am forced to use expressions like echo 'scale=25;65320/670' | bc but ...
4
votes
2answers
316 views

Does bc supports hex calculations?

I'm trying to do a hex calculation directly with bc, I already specified the scale. echo 'scale=16;c06b1000-c06a5e78' | bc But it still got me zero. What could be wrong?
4
votes
1answer
197 views

How to define a `bc` function for later use?

I've always found bc kind of mysterious and intriguing. It was one of the original Unix programs. And it's a programming language unto itself. So I gladly take any chance I can find to use it. Since ...
3
votes
4answers
122 views

Round/truncate digit in string in zsh (or with external tool)

I'm trying to do an interface to bc so it can be used intuitively and without the annoyance of getting "stuck" in it. I haven't got around to test it that much, because I got stuck on another detail, ...
3
votes
3answers
3k views

How to calculate values in a shell script?

I run this command in the terminal: grep "bla bla blah" blah* | echo "Blah: $(wc -l) / $(ls | wc -l) * 100" And I get this output: Blah: 44 / 89 * 100 What I expect to see: 49.4 Is there a ...
3
votes
1answer
230 views

BC - output normal form?

I have a big number: 2923174917395723957 that would be: 2,923*10^18 are there any parameters in bc that will give this OUTPUT? e.g.: $ echo '2923174917395723956 + 1' | bc 2,923*10^18 $ Or ...
2
votes
4answers
72 views

Perform floating point arithmetic in shell script variable definitions

I understand bash and some other interpreters only perform arithmetic for integers. In the following for loop, how can I accomplish this? I've read that bc can be used but am not sure how to use bc ...
2
votes
4answers
565 views

Calculate variable, and output it to another variable

The only calculator I know is bc. I want to add 1 to a variable, and output to another variable. I got the nextnum variable from counting string in a file: nextnum=`grep -o stringtocount ...
2
votes
2answers
76 views

Float operation with bc?

It looks like bc doesn't support float operations, when I do echo 1/8 | bc it get me a zero. I checked bc (1), but it doesn't even mention float, so I wonder if it's supported?
2
votes
2answers
301 views

How to divide a list of values by a number in command line?

I am trying to translate a simple program to the command line using unix utilities. For example, if I have a frequency list (after piping through uniq and sort) 5 x 4 y 1 z I want to print out, ...
2
votes
3answers
272 views

BC - no “\\n” at the end + start with zeros?

This is a bc output, e.g.: Input: echo "scale=10; BLA-BLA-HERE-NOT-IMPORTANT" | bc Output: .3708446283953709207058828124021300754352578903651372655882743141882\ ...
2
votes
3answers
614 views

Syntax error comparing floats with bc

I'm trying to use the comparison operator of bc and I'm getting a "syntax error on line 1 stdin" error. I need to use the comparison functionality within a korn script because korn doesn't handle ...
2
votes
3answers
382 views

How can I call bc from within awk in this case?

OK, so I love my awk, but yeah, it has precision issues, and unfortunately there's no easy way for me to install the multi-precision extensions known as gawkextlib. What I am doing is, I am working ...