Bash Division Keeps giving 0

Question

I know bash doesn't support long division, but here it goes. I looked up a bash work-around to giving me a supposed numeric value for the division. For example, this is what I got:

#!/bin/bash
SMALL_NUMBER=4
LARGE_NUMBER=56100

MATH_PROBLEM=$((100*$SMALL_NUMBER/$LARGE_NUMBER))
echo $MATH_PROBLEM

I execute the code and the output is always 0. I thought multiplying the expression by 100 would fix this but apparently not. Can someone tell me what is going on with this?

What do you think the answer should be? – President James K. Polk Aug 04 '17 at 20:32 — President James K. Polk, Aug 04 '17 at 20:32
The problem is `400 / 56100 < 1` – Jedi Aug 04 '17 at 20:33 — Jedi, Aug 04 '17 at 20:33

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 04 '17 at 20:32

3

Bash only does integers, not floats; you must delegate the task to a tool such as bc

answered Aug 04 '17 at 20:32

py9

561
4
14

Bash Division Keeps giving 0

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