How do you add Decimal Numbers in Bash Script?

Asked Mar 15 '16 at 08:38

Active Mar 15 '16 at 08:51

Viewed 49 times

I'm writing a bash script that will contain random numbers such as 1.2, 3.4, 8.0, 10.9. I want to assign each number to a variable then compute the average.

I've tried doing t1=$(( ( RANDOM % 5 ) + 8 ).$(( ( RANDOM % 10 ) )) and I get what I want, but I can't figure out how to add them all up then divide to get the average.

edited Mar 15 '16 at 08:51

asked Mar 15 '16 at 08:38

Sarah

1

Your title says "How do you get a Random Decimal Number", but it seems that you already have that and that your issue is more like adding and dividing them - if that is true, you should modify your title and probably post what you have tried so far. – Andreas Fester Mar 15 '16 at 08:43
Bash doesn't support floating-point arithmetic. You'll need to manually add up the numbers just like kids do in school. Then do the same for the average. – Filkolev Mar 15 '16 at 08:50
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@Filkolev: Or use a tool that understands floats, like `bc`. – choroba Mar 15 '16 at 08:56
@choroba: Or use a shell that does, like Zsh. – user1934428 Mar 15 '16 at 09:00
Just got the total using bc – Sarah Mar 15 '16 at 09:01
echo "scale=2; t1+t2" | bc – Sarah Mar 15 '16 at 09:01
Awesome figured it out thank you!!! – Sarah Mar 15 '16 at 09:06

How do you add Decimal Numbers in Bash Script?

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