From: Jeff Lightner (jlightner@water.com)
Date: Thu Oct 12 2006 - 11:25:41 EDT
Found a link that gave a function for this. It had some other lines
that didn't make any sense and didn't actually call the function. I've
deleted the lines and added a final to call the function:
#!/bin/ksh
#
# Function to evaluate the absolute value of a number
abs () {
# Check for numeric input
if expr $1 + 0 2>/dev/null 1>&2 ; then
# Is the number negative?
if [ $1 -lt 0 ] ; then
echo `expr 0 - $1`
else
echo $1
fi
return 0 # OK
else
return 1 # Not a number
fi
}
abs $1
You could just insert the function within a script then call the "abs"
line with whatever input you wanted at the point you were ready which is
presumably why he posted it as a function rather than a wholly contained
script. The above however is stand alone because it calls the function
after it defines it. You wouldn't really need it to be a function for
this.
The link is
http://forums.devshed.com/unix-help-35/absolute-value-fuction-in-unix-26
7780.html
It mentions other ways to do it with awk or bc.
-----Original Message-----
From: hpux-admin-owner@DutchWorks.nl
[mailto:hpux-admin-owner@DutchWorks.nl] On Behalf Of Shaw, Marco
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 10:38 AM
To: hpux-admin@DutchWorks.nl
Subject: [HPADM] Getting an absolute value
Can't believe google doesn't provide an answer, searched these archives
also!
#a=`expr 2 - 1`
#echo $a
1
#a=`expr 2 - 3`
#echo $a
-1
I want to get the absolute value of the difference. I don't have to use
expr, but
also would prefer something available directly with the Borne shell.
Marco
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