140
In this article, we will explore the use of floating-point numbers in shell scripting and we’ll create a shell script to Add Two Float Numbers.
In shell scripting, floating point numbers are decimal numbers used to represent real numbers with a fractional part. They are represented as double-precision numbers and are stored as 64-bit values in memory.
Shell Script to Add Two Float Numbers
#!/bin/bash
# Prompt the user for two numbers
echo "Enter the first number: "
read num1
echo "Enter the second number: "
read num2
# Use bc for accurate floating-point addition
sum=$(echo "$num1 + $num2" | bc)
# Display the sum
echo "The sum of $num1 and $num2 is: $sum"
Explanation:
- Shebang (#!): The first line specifies the interpreter to use, which is
/bin/bash
in this case. - Input: The script prompts the user to enter two numbers using
read
and stores them in variablesnum1
andnum2
. - Calculation: We use the
echo
command to pipe the expression"$num1 + $num2"
(numbers in quotes) tobc
. This ensures proper handling of spaces and special characters.bc
performs the addition with high precision. The result is captured using command substitution and assigned to the variablesum
. - Output: Finally, the script displays the sum using
echo
, along with the original numbers for clarity.
Running the Script:
- Save the script as a file, for example,
add_floats.sh
. - Make the script executable using
chmod +x add_floats.sh
. - Run the script from the command line:
./add_floats.sh
.