Absolute value:
$ for n in -8 -2 0 3 4; do > echo $((n<0?-n:n)) > done 8 2 0 3 4
Fix variable range:
$ min=2 $ max=4 $ for n in 1 2 3 4 5; do > echo $((n<min?min:n>max?max:n)) > done 2 2 3 4 4