am trying to write a script that test that the load average which is taken from the uptime command's output to make sure it doesn't pass a certain limit. each time I execute the script, it complains about interger errors.

if [ $LOAD -gt $MAX ]

Are you certain that this line is where the code stops executing? Are you sure that $LOAD and $MAX actually contain numerical values? Could you post some more of the code?

If you have a value like "4.00", just get rid of the dot and you have "400". Now it is integers, but it is multipled by 100. So to compare another number to it, do the same to the other number as well.

If you have "MAX=4.00", then do
MAX=$(echo $MAX | sed 's/\.//')
to get rid of that dot.

But if you have "MAX=4", you need to muliply by 100. But, just toss a couple of zeros on the end:

MAX="${MAX}00"

This is quicker than a real multiply.