UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,

I am trying to find out how to get an absolute value for integer in ksh.

I tried using abs... but that doesn't work ! this is the workaround I did, but isn't there an inbuilt function to get absolute value for any variable !

Please help as i am new to unix

Thanks,

**********************************

#!/usr/bin/ksh

ACTROWCNT=100
EXPROWCNT=100

if [ ${ACTROWCNT} -ge ${EXPROWCNT} ]; then
diff=`expr ${ACTROWCNT} - ${EXPROWCNT}`
else
diff=`expr ${EXPROWCNT} - ${ACTROWCNT}`
fi



if [ ${diff} -gt 100 ]; then
echo "should fail"
else
echo "Continue"
fi

exit 0

I'm sure this isn't the correct way to do this but Ksh lets you strip the sign:

x=-100
print ${x#-}

it worked! Thanxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**********************
#!/usr/bin/ksh

ACTROWCNT=100
EXPROWCNT=1000
diff=`expr ${ACTROWCNT} - ${EXPROWCNT}`

if [ ${diff#-} -gt 100 ]; then
echo "Error"
else
echo "no Error"
fi

exit 0

Code:

#!/bin/ksh

typeset -i a=5
typeset -i b=7

function abs
{
   typeset -i a=${1}
   (( $1 < 0 )) && a=$(( -$1 ))
    echo $a
}

diff=$(( a - b ))

echo "diff->[${diff}] abs(${diff})->[$(abs ${diff})]"