Bash Math Math using dc

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Example

dc is one of the oldest language on Unix.

It is using the reverse polish notation, which means that you are first stacking numbers, then operations. For example 1+1 is written as 1 1+.

To print an element from the top of the stack use command p

echo '2 3 + p' | dc
5

or

dc <<< '2 3 + p'
5

You can print the top element many times

dc <<< '1 1 + p 2 + p'
2
4

For negative numbers use _ prefix

dc <<< '_1 p'
-1

You can also use capital letters from A to F for numbers between 10 and 15 and . as a decimal point

dc <<< 'A.4 p'
10.4

dc is using abitrary precision which means that the precision is limited only by the available memory. By default the precision is set to 0 decimals

dc <<< '4 3 / p'
1

We can increase the precision using command k. 2k will use

dc <<< '2k 4 3 / p'
1.33

dc <<< '4k 4 3 / p'
1.3333

You can also use it over multiple lines

dc << EOF
1 1 +
3 *
p
EOF
6

bc is a preprocessor for dc.



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