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A number as far as the shell is concerned, a number is a string that holds digits. You don't need to "convert" it, something else is going on.

Could you post a sample of your data file?

Could you attach your data file? The actual file, not what you think it looks like. I think it's not what you expect.

#!/bin/sh

file="inputfile.txt"

while IFS='|' read fullname spacename startnumber
do
echo "$fullname $spacename $startnumber"

if [ "$startnumber" -le 9 ];then
echo "startnumber is less...

Works fine.

Keep in mind that any blank line or record will provoke that error. You might want to put an [ -z "$fullname" ] && continue at the top of your loop to ignore blank lines.

Also...