Formatting numbers a certain way in bash

Question

A program I use takes input from a text file and expects strings dealing with currency to be formatted as XXXX.XX

I would like to be able to just enter the relevant parts of the number and have my script add the leading zeros and/or trailing dot and zeros as necessary. For example, to enter 1.1 and have it formatted 0001.10, enter 32 and have it formatted 0032.00, enter .99 and have it formatted 0000.99, etc.

Doing it purely with bash would be nice, but calling something else like sed as well would be fine too.

And by "look up", you can type `help printf` and `man printf` from a bash prompt. — glenn jackman, Jul 29 '14 at 16:56

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-29T15:48:24.783

5

You can use printf like this:

s='32'
printf "%07.2f\n" "$s"
0032.00

s='1.1'
printf "%07.2f\n" "$s"
0001.10

s='.99'
printf "%07.2f\n" "$s"
0000.99

Explanation: This format %07.2f uses:

0 for padding with zeroes if needed
7 for total width as 7 (including decimal point)
.2f for specifying 2 decimal places

edited Jul 29 '14 at 15:48

answered Jul 29 '14 at 15:36

anubhava

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You don't need to quote `$s`, just pass directly `printf "%07.2f\n" 32` – cuonglm Jul 29 '14 at 15:41
3

An explanation of how `printf` works would probably be helpful for OP – Jul 29 '14 at 15:43
Thanks @Jidder: I added some explanation. – anubhava Jul 29 '14 at 15:48
1

@HB_: to write result in variable $s: `printf -v s "%07.2f\n" "$s"` – Cyrus Jul 29 '14 at 19:00

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 29 '14 at 15:43

1

printf "%07.2f" <input>

Example: printf "%07.2f" .99 = 0000.99

answered Jul 29 '14 at 15:43

Jeff

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Formatting numbers a certain way in bash

2 Answers2