Getting awk Output as number instead of String

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi All,

I have a file a.txt, content as mentioned below:

 
 22454750
 
This data in this control file and

I have a variable called vCount which contains a number.

I need to extract the 22454750 from the above file and compare with the variable vCount. If match fine or else exit.

i used awk to extract the number as mentioned below:

fileCount=$(awk 'NR==1 {print $1}' a.txt)
 
if [[ $vCount == $fileCount ]] ; then
echo "match"
else "do not match"
exit 1
fi

Value of vCount is 22454750
I got msg do not match and error non numeric comparison.

Can you guys please help on the above issue . It seems the fileCount is a string. How do i convert it to number?

Thanks
Arun

2

try below if block

 
if [ "$vCount" = "$fileCount" ]
3

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. But after using the above if block i still got error.
I saw in debug mode the fileCount value as mentioned below:

 
fileCount=$'22454750\r'

the if condition is unable to match as below:

 
[' 22454750 = $'22454750\r' ']

PLease provide your inputs/suggestion on the above

4

You have to correct the source from which you are populating the data in the variables.. in one variable you are getting space and in another extra \r

5

Math tests use "-eq" "-gt" "-lt" not "=" so try one of those combinations...

6

Hi Arun,
If you can't (or don't want to) correct your input source, you could try one of the following:

#!/bin/ksh
vCount="$1"
echo 'Using awk:'
fileCount=$(awk '{gsub(/\r/, "")}
        NR==1 {print $1}' a.txt)
if [ "$vCount" -eq "$fileCount" ]
then    printf "\"%s\" is equal to \"%s\"\n" "$vCount" "$fileCount"
else    printf "\"%s\" is not equal to \"%s\"\n" "$vCount" "$fileCount"
fi
echo 'Using read and variable expansion:'
IFS='' read -r fileCount < a.txt
fileCount="${fileCount%%[!0-9]*}"
if [ "$vCount" -eq "$fileCount" ]
then    printf "\"%s\" is equal to \"%s\"\n" "$vCount" "$fileCount"
else    printf "\"%s\" is not equal to \"%s\"\n" "$vCount" "$fileCount"
fi

When a.txt contains a <carriage-return> as well as a <newline> as shown by this output from from the command:

od -c a.txt
0000000    2   2   4   5   4   7   5   0  \r  \n                        
0000012

then running the above script with the argument 22454750 produces the output:

Using awk:
"22454750" is equal to "22454750"
Using read and variable expansion:
"22454750" is equal to "22454750"

As you can tell from the script, I usually use the Korn shell; but this script will work with any POSIX conforming shell (including both ksh and bash).

As shamrock said, when you're comparing arithmetic values -le must be used instead of <= and -ge must be used instead of >= . With inequality, it doesn't make much difference whether you use != or -ne although -ne is preferred if you are comparing numbers. For equality, the form of test command determines the operator to use when you're comparing strings:

  1. = for test expr or [ expr ]
  2. == for [[ expr ]]

and when you're comparing numbers:

  1. -eq or = for test expr or [ expr ]
  2. -eq or == for [[ expr ]]

again with -eq being the preferred operator.