UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Can some one please explain the correct syntax of the bc command to me. The UNIX man bc does not show you much.

Regards
Wolf

I'm not really sure what you're asking for here, because the man page on the bc command is fairly extensive. There are many options to choose from and the man page does a fairly good job of explaining them and what the command actually does.

In a script I am grepping for two values and put them in seperate files. In this same script I want to do a calculation. This is the part that I struggle with : ***part of the script*****

NUM1=`cat /app/temp/file1.txt`
echo $NUM1 **value is 198.3**
NUM2=`cat /app/temp/file2.txt`
echo $NUM2 **value is 68.2**

TOT=`echo "$NUM1" / "$NUM2" | bc`
echo $TOT

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Now, when using bc like this in the same script, it will trow away all numbers after the decimal sign. This is not what i need it to do.

Regards
Wolf

in bc command, there is a variable called "scale", which is
number of digits right of decimal point.

#x1=5.7
#x2=6.7
#x=$(printf "%s\n" "scale = 10; `echo $x1`/`echo $x2`" |bc)

it works. : )

thanks a lot......it works 100%......

can you explain the command a bit to me please......