1

Today I was trying to compare two values and surprised what I saw. I didn't find any good suggestion anywhere. Could any one please help?

if [ 10.94 -gt 10 ]
then
  echo True
else
  echo False
fi

I am surprised here the result is False.

Then I tried the following.

if [[ 10.94 > 10 ]]

Result came as True. I was fine with it.

Again my script gave a flaw at a particular condition like below

if [[ 5.15 > 10 ]]
  echo True
fi

Here result came as True.

How come? Is there any better idea, which will compare the decimal values in a proper way?

Improve this question
6
  • > is a string comparison, -gt is arithmetic and only accepts integers. Commented Feb 16, 2016 at 8:19
  • @123 Thanks . Do you have any suggestion for Decimal values (Float)? Commented Feb 16, 2016 at 8:25
  • You can use bc or awk. Commented Feb 16, 2016 at 8:27
  • please suggest, in this case how can I use bc/awk command? Commented Feb 16, 2016 at 9:32
  • First example - you said: "I am surprised here the result is False." I am surprised too, because ksh returns True Commented Feb 16, 2016 at 13:02

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1 
echo | awk '{if (10.1 > 10.0) {print "True"} else {print "False"} }' 
True

if [ $(echo "10.12 < 10.13"|bc -l) -eq 1 ];then echo "True"; else echo "False"; fi
True
Improve this answer
2
  • Hopefully the first solution will work in my script. The 2nd solution is not working in my shell. I ll try the first one. Thanks Commented Feb 16, 2016 at 14:46
  • what shell do you have? I ve checked it on bash and ksh. Commented Feb 16, 2016 at 17:58

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