Numbers bash script

UNIX for Beginners Q & A
1

Hi,

is possible in bash script change numbers "01140" to "0 hours, 11 minutes, 40 seconds" ?

Thanks!

2

Yes, and depending of your knowledge of UNIX many approaches and solutions...
What have you tried?

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3

I tried:

echo "01140" | rev | cut -c 5- | rev
echo "01140" | rev | cut -c 3- | rev|cut -c2-
echo "01140" | rev | cut -c 1- | rev|cut -c4-

I need a command on a single line

I need the result as: 0:11:40 (11 minutes and 40 seconds)

thanks!

4 
number=01140
numbers=$(printf "%6s" $number)
numbers=${numbers// /0}
echo ${numbers:0:2} hours, ${numbers:2:2} minutes, ${numbers:4:2} seconds

caveat for more than 99 hours.

5

A quick note to add:

numbers=$(printf "%6s" $number)
numbers=${numbers// /0}

could also be combined as:

numbers=$(printf "%06s" "$number")
6

true that. but I wanted to keep two digits echo for each column. In case of a number like: 140

note: my bash version thinks that the number 01140 is not a integer type because of the leading zero. Other shells I use ignore the leading zero and use it as integer. the example solution posted seems to work for the shells I use.

7

Ah I see OK

By the way I suggested " %6s " rather than " %6d " to avoid the octal thing...

8

I tried both previously but the bash shell still converts the number. If the leading zero is removed then it is treated as integer. Again, only the version of bash I use is doing it.

9

%06s is obviously not portable.
On different OS I get different results:

printf "%06s\n" 01140
 01140

printf "%06s\n" 01140
001140

However, never this is seen as a number.

--- Post updated at 15:00 ---

Here is another one for bash:

x=01140
x=00$x; echo "${x: -6:2} hours, ${x: -4:2} minutes,  ${x: -2} seconds"

--- Post updated at 15:33 ---

The following seems to be pretty portable:

printf "%06.f\n" 01140
001140

printf "%06g\n" "$x"
001140
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