String conversion from numeric to string in awk

Question

I have below awk command which give mentioned result as well.

echo '1600000.00000000' '1600000.0000' | awk '{ print ($1 != $2) ? "true" : "false" }'

Result is : - false

As per numeric value the result given by the command is correct. But I want command must consider both input('1600000.00000000' '1600000.0000') as string and give the result as true. Because If you consider both input as string then they are not equal difference is there in precision.

etopylight · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-23 09:28:46Z

10

From the GNU Awk user's guide, to force a number to be converted to a string, concatenate that number with the empty string ""

$ echo '1600000.00000000' '1600000.0000' |
  awk '{ print ($1"" != $2"") ? "true" : "false" }'

answered Oct 23, 2017 at 9:28

etopylight

1,3391 gold badge10 silver badges17 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

5 Comments

Amol Murkute Over a year ago

Thank you very much etopylight....Its worked for me. Thanks to stackoverflow team as well.

Sundeep Over a year ago

I think concatenating one of them is enough... ($1"" != $2)

etopylight Over a year ago

@Sundeep That worked too :) didn't noticed that a string comparison can be forced if at least an operand is a string type

etopylight Over a year ago

@AmolMurkute Cool, glad to help!

RARE Kpop Manifesto Over a year ago

@etopylight : i usually like prepending the empty string instead ::::::::: :::::::::::: ::::::: :::::::::::: :::::: :::::: awk '{ print ($1 == _$2 ? "false" : "true") }' ::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::: gapless string concat is actually a thing in awk

Tiago Lopo · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-23 10:17:11Z

2

You can also use sprintf:

echo '1600000.00000000' '1600000.0000' |\
awk '{ print(sprintf("%f",$1) == sprintf("%f",$2)) ? "true": "false"}'
true

answered Oct 23, 2017 at 10:17

Tiago Lopo

8,0391 gold badge39 silver badges53 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

String conversion from numeric to string in awk

2 Answers 2

5 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

5 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related