Subtract two variables in Bash

Question

I have the script below to subtract the counts of files between two directories but the COUNT= expression does not work. What is the correct syntax?

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Answer 1

Try this Bash syntax instead of trying to use an external program expr:

count=$((FIRSTV-SECONDV))

BTW, the correct syntax of using expr is:

count=$(expr $FIRSTV - $SECONDV)

But keep in mind using expr is going to be slower than the internal Bash syntax I provided above.

Answer 2

Alternatively to the suggested 3 methods you can try let which carries out arithmetic operations on variables as follows:

let COUNT=$FIRSTV-$SECONDV

or

let COUNT=FIRSTV-SECONDV

Answer 3

White space is important, expr expects its operands and operators as separate arguments. You also have to capture the output. Like this:

COUNT=$(expr $FIRSTV - $SECONDV)

but it's more common to use the builtin arithmetic expansion:

COUNT=$((FIRSTV - SECONDV))

Answer 4

Use Python:

#!/bin/bash
# home/victoria/test.sh

START=$(date +"%s")                                     ## seconds since Epoch
for i in $(seq 1 10)
do
  sleep 1.5
  END=$(date +"%s")                                     ## integer
  TIME=$((END - START))                                 ## integer
  AVG_TIME=$(python -c "print(float($TIME/$i))")        ## int to float
  printf 'i: %i | elapsed time: %0.1f sec | avg. time: %0.3f\n' $i $TIME $AVG_TIME
  ((i++))                                               ## increment $i
done

Output

$ ./test.sh 
i: 1 | elapsed time: 1.0 sec | avg. time: 1.000
i: 2 | elapsed time: 3.0 sec | avg. time: 1.500
i: 3 | elapsed time: 5.0 sec | avg. time: 1.667
i: 4 | elapsed time: 6.0 sec | avg. time: 1.500
i: 5 | elapsed time: 8.0 sec | avg. time: 1.600
i: 6 | elapsed time: 9.0 sec | avg. time: 1.500
i: 7 | elapsed time: 11.0 sec | avg. time: 1.571
i: 8 | elapsed time: 12.0 sec | avg. time: 1.500
i: 9 | elapsed time: 14.0 sec | avg. time: 1.556
i: 10 | elapsed time: 15.0 sec | avg. time: 1.500
$

• Get current time in seconds since the Epoch on Linux, Bash

Answer 5

You just need a little extra whitespace around the minus sign, and backticks:

COUNT=`expr $FIRSTV - $SECONDV`

Be aware of the exit status:

The exit status is 0 if EXPRESSION is neither null nor 0, 1 if EXPRESSION is null or 0.

Keep this in mind when using the expression in a bash script in combination with set -e which will exit immediately if a command exits with a non-zero status.

Answer 6

You can use:

((count = FIRSTV - SECONDV))

to avoid invoking a separate process, as per the following transcript:

pax:~$ FIRSTV=7
pax:~$ SECONDV=2
pax:~$ ((count = FIRSTV - SECONDV))
pax:~$ echo $count
5