[SOLVED] How do I test if a variable is a number in Bash?

Issue

I just can't figure out how do I make sure an argument passed to my script is a number or not.

All I want to do is something like this:

test *isnumber* $1 && VAR=$1 || echo "need a number"

Any help?

Solution

One approach is to use a regular expression, like so:

re='^[0-9]+$'
if ! [[ $yournumber =~ $re ]] ; then
   echo "error: Not a number" >&2; exit 1
fi

If the value is not necessarily an integer, consider amending the regex appropriately; for instance:

^[0-9]+([.][0-9]+)?$

...or, to handle numbers with a sign:

^[+-]?[0-9]+([.][0-9]+)?$

Answered By - Charles Duffy