24

I have an if statement I need to run, as long as the value I have stored in my $counter variable is greater than 5.

Here is the respective section of my current (non-functioning) script:

if $counter > 5
then
    echo "something"
fi

The mistake I'm making is probably very obvious, but for some reason I couldn't find the solution online.. Thanks!

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1
  • It's unclear whether this question originally meant to ask specifically for a bash-specific solution or a bash tag was just added to it so the suggested duplicate bash-specific question isn't exactly correct. Close with a POSIX/sh-specific duplicate question if wanted. Commented May 15 at 2:40

2 Answers 2

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51

Well that is quite simple:

if [ "$counter" -gt 5 ]
then
    echo "something"
fi
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10 Comments

Unless you need sh compatibility, it's better to use [[ and ]] instead of [ and ]. See mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/031
Of course. It's meant for compatibility seeing that he didn't mention bash in the title.
@konsolebox, you need to look at the tags below the question. Titles are very often misleading.
If you're using bash, (( counter > 5 )) is even better.
does that work inside double brackets? eg [[ (( counter > 5 )) ]] ?
No, double parentheses are a command just like double brackets; use them instead of brackets. Inside double brackets, the parentheses are just used for grouping.
@glennjackman I'm actually not sure if everyone who tags bash knows the difference between bash and simply sh. (Commenting for reference).
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27

Arithmetic needs to be done between (( and )):

if (( $counter > 5 ))

Incidentally, you can also leave off the $ in arithmetic, though it doesn't hurt to keep it.

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4 Comments

Yes however, I would argue conditional expressions should be done in [[ ]]. So which one should really be it? I'd pick [[ ]]. See my arguments here: stackoverflow.com/a/18568726/445221. (Commenting for reference).
$counter and counter aren't completely identical. If you want counter='' to be identical to counter=0, take the $ off; if you want it to be an error, put it on.
would if [[ $counter -lt 5 ]]; then ... also work?
You mean -gt, but then yes. See also the accepted answer.

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