How to do integer & float calculations, in bash or other languages/frameworks?

You could use bc. E.g.,

$ echo "25 + 5" | bc
30

Alternatively bc <<< 25+5 will also work.

Or interactively, if you want to do more than just a single simple calculation:

$ bc
bc 1.06.95
Copyright 1991-1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
For details type `warranty'. 
25 + 5
30

The GNU implementation of bc prints that header/copyright info on start-up when both its stdin and stdout go to a terminal. You can suppress it with the (GNU-specific) -q option. For more information see the bc man page

There are many ways to calculate.
For simple expressions you can use bash itself:

echo $((20+5))

or expr:

expr 20 + 5

And for complex cases there is great tool bc:

echo "20+5" | bc

Btw, bc can calculate even very complex expression with roots, logarithms, cos, sin and so on.

The mentioned solutions are fine for very simple calculations, but very error-prone. Examples:

# without spaces expr 20+5 produces literally 20+5
expr 20+5
→ 20+5

# bc's result doesn't give the fractional part by default
bc <<< 9.0/2.0
→ 4

# expr does only integer
expr 9 / 2
→ 4

# same for POSIX arithmetic expansion
echo $((9/2))
→ 4

# bash arithmetic expansion chokes on floats
echo $((9.0/2.0))
→ bash: 9/2.0: syntax error: invalid arithmetic operator (error token is ".0")

# Most `expr` implementations also have problems with floats
expr 9.0 / 2.0
→ expr: non-integer argument

A syntax error like the last ones is easily noticed, but integer responses with a discarded float part can easily go unnoticed and lead to wrong results.

That’s why I always use a scripting language like Lua for that. But you can choose any scripting language that you’re familiar with. I just use Lua as an example. The advantages are

• a familiar syntax
• familiar functions
• familiar caveats
• flexible input
• spaces usually don’t matter
• floating point output

Examples:

lua -e "print(9/2)"
→ 4.5

lua -e "print(9 / 2)"
→ 4.5

lua -e "print(9.0/2)"
→ 4.5

lua -e "print (9 /2.)"
→ 4.5

lua -e "print(math.sqrt(9))"
→ 3

You can use calc:

If you just enter calc with no other arguments it enters an interactive mode where you can just keep doing math. You exit this by typing exit:

C-style arbitrary precision calculator (version 2.12.3.3)
Calc is open software. For license details type:  help copyright
[Type "exit" to exit, or "help" for help.]

; 2+4
6
; 3+5
8
; 3.4+5
8.4
; 2^4
16
; exit

Or you use it with the expression as an argument and it will provide the answer and then exit

$calc 2 + 4
    6
$

calc is similar to bc, I just like the way it behave as default better

For console calculations, I use concalc. (sudo aptitude install concalc)

After that, just type concalc and hit enter. It won’t supply a prompt, but just type in the your calculation (no spaces) and hit enter, and on the next line, it’ll give you the numeric value.

I like to fire up Python and use it as an interactive calculator (but then again, I’m a Python programmer).

I can’t believe to read “the power of JavaScript” (but I had to upvote the answer for the other parts, except perl of course.

Practically, for the simple cases where integer arithmetic is sufficient, I use the buildin $((…)) and recommend it. Else, in almost all cases echo “…” | bc is sufficient.

For some arithmetic operations like statistics, matrix operations and more R is the better tool:

echo 25 + 5 | R --vanilla

and for small datasets and graphical throw away results, oocalc is a nice utility.

$> ghc -e '20 + 5'
25
it :: Integer

Also ghci, that is the Glasgow-Haskell Compiler in interactive mode (ghc --interactive, as opposed to it evaluating an expression with -e), makes for a fascinating “calculator”:

$>ghci
GHCi, version 7.8.3: http://www.haskell.org/ghc/  :? for help
Loading package ghc-prim ... linking ... done.
Loading package integer-gmp ... linking ... done.
Loading package base ... linking ... done.
Prelude> pi
3.141592653589793
Prelude> ceiling pi
4
Prelude> compare 1 2
LT

Since no-one else has mentioned it, and though it’s not strictly a calculator (but neither are all these general-purpose scripting languages), I’d like to mention units:

$ units "1 + 1"
        Definition: 2
$ units "1 lb" "kg"
        * 0.45359237
         / 2.2046226

Or, for less output so you can get just the number to use in $() to assign to something:

$ units -t "1 + 1"
2
$ units -t "1 lb" "kg"
0.4539237

And it even does temperature conversions

$ units -t "tempC(20)" "tempF"
68

To get the temperature conversion in an expression for further calculation, do this:

$ units -t "~tempF(tempC(20))+1"
68.1

Nobody has mentioned awk yet?

Using POSIX shell functions, and awk math power, just define this (one line) function:

calc(){ awk "BEGIN { print $*}"; }

Then just execute things like calc 1+1 or calc 5/2

Note: To make the function always available, add it to ~/.bashrc (or your corresponding shell’s startup file)

Of course, a little script named “calc” with the following contents:

#!/bin/sh -
awk "BEGIN { print $* }"

could also work.

SQLite:

echo 'select 1 + 1;' | sqlite3 

MySQL:

mysql -e 'select 1 + 1 from dual;'

PostgreSQL:

psql -c 'select 1 + 1 as sum;'

I use a little python script that will evaluate a python expression and print the result, then I can run something like

$ pc '[i ** 2 for i in range(10)]'
[0, 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81]

the script is:

#!/usr/local/bin/python3

import sys
import traceback
from codeop import CommandCompiler

compile = CommandCompiler()
filename = "<input>"
source = ' '.join(sys.argv[1:]) + 'n'

try:
    code = compile(source, filename) 
except (OverflowError, SyntaxError, ValueError):
    type, value, sys.last_traceback = sys.exc_info()
    sys.last_type = type
    sys.last_value = value
    if filename and type is SyntaxError:
        # Work hard to stuff the correct filename in the exception
        try:
            msg, (dummy_filename, lineno, offset, line) = value.args
        except ValueError:
            # Not the format we expect; leave it alone
            pass
        else:
            # Stuff in the right filename
            value = SyntaxError(msg, (filename, lineno, offset, line))
            sys.last_value = value
    lines = traceback.format_exception_only(type, value)
    print(''.join(lines))
else:
    if code:
        exec(code)
    else:
        print('incomplete')

Unfortunately I don’t remember where I borrowed most of the code from, so I can’t cite it.

Use the GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic Library through the supplied run-expr program:

• Download and extract(you will need lzip): tar -xvf gmp-5.1.3.tar.lz
• In the top directory, ./configure and make (no need to install)
• In demos/expr, make run-expr
• I like to create a symbolic link to it in my ~/bin directory: ln -s /path/to/gmp/demos/expr/run-expr ~/bin/run-expr
• Add an alias for easy use; for instance alias calcf='run-expr -f' for floating point evaluation

Output:

# calcf '2/3'
"2/3" base 0: result 0.666666666666666666667e0

From the run-expr.c file:

Usage: ./run-expr [-z] [-q] [-f] [-p prec] [-b base] expression...

   Evaluate each argument as a simple expression.  By default this is in mpz
   integers, but -q selects mpq or -f selects mpf.  For mpf the float
   precision can be set with -p.  In all cases the input base can be set
   with -b, or the default is "0" meaning decimal with "0x" allowed.

See the manual for function classes differences and details.

Gnuplot

gnuplot – an interactive plotting program
Follow the above link or type gnuplot form the prompt then help inside the gnuplot interpreter.
Gnuplot is a program born to plot data, but can be used for calculation too. It offer the advantage that you can define functions and or use the built-in ones.

echo  "pr 20+5/2"  |  gnuplot          #  Lazy-note `pr` instead of print
22                                     #  Integer calculation & result
echo  "pr 20.+5/2"  |  gnuplot         #  Lazy-note `pr` instead of print
22.0                                   #  Floating point result
echo  "pr sin(2*pi/3.)"  |  gnuplot    #  Some functions ...
0.866025403784439

Root (or some other C interpreter)

The ROOT system provides a set of OO frameworks with all the functionality needed to handle and analyze large amounts of data in a very efficient way…

You can use it as C interpreter, CINT, or you can use one of the many many other C interpreters . IMHO, it’s huge, complex, powerful, and not always friendly but can give big satisfaction too.

If you really do not want to listen the little voice inside you that cites Confucio and you are ready to break a (butter)fly on the wheel you can use root. In this case -l is mandatory to avoid to show splash screen…

echo  "20+5/2"   | root -l
(const int)22
echo  "20+5/2."  | root -l
(const double)2.25000000000000000e+01

echo  "cout<< 20+5/2 << endl;"   | root -l
22

For Integer arithmetic (where 3/2=1)

• bash echo $(( 1+1 ))
• fish math 1+1
• zsh* echo $((1+1))

*: and ksh93, yash

For floating point arithmetic (where 3/2=1.5)

• bash awk "BEGIN {print 10/3}" (low precision)
• bash echo "10/3"|bc -l (high precision)
• fish math -s4 10/3
• zsh* echo $((10./3))

*: and ksh93, yash

You can of course configure your shell to use awk with minimum typing like calc 10/3 (see notes on how to do it for bash¹ and fish²).

The main reason for suggesting awk for bash is that it’s preinstalled on almost all Unix-like OSes and is reasonably light (there is of course the cost of starting a process) with a less precise but more human-friendly output than bc -l which prints 20 decimal digits (although you can certainly tweak awk to get more decimal digits).

Notes

(1) How to use the simplified syntax in bash

Add this bash function to your ~/.bashrc:

calc(){ awk "BEGIN { print $*}"; }

(2) How to use the simplified syntax in fish

Create a calc fish function (i.e. a text file named /home/ndemou/.config/fish/functions/calc.fish):

function calc
    awk "BEGIN{ print $argv }" ;
end

The rest of solutions here all have notable drawbacks.

So I have created a new command to be able to do this in the simplest and most reliable way.

It’s simply a wrapper around Perl, but by turning behavior predictable. With more flexible input, and actual crashing on unsolvable functions.

Samples:

$ solve 1/5
0.2

$ solve 1.5+3.1
4.6

$ solve 1/1000000
1e-06

$ solve 7+2^3
15

$ solve "sqrt(8)"
2.82842712474619

$ solve 1/0
non solvable  : 1/0

• Source code
• Pacman repository