Bash scripts have many options for mathematical calculations from the terminal. You can do anything from generating a number list to comparing the numbers through scripts. Although developing a number list is easy, comparing the numbers can be difficult for beginners. Comparisons in a Bash script are useful as it compares the details and executes the commands accordingly. In this tutorial, we will explain the different ways to use the greater than numerical comparison in a Bash script.

Greater Than Numerical Comparison in a Bash Script

There are various ways to compare two numbers in the Bash script, and we will describe them all with some examples:

1. Compare Two Numbers Using > Command

It is a simple command which you can use to find out the greater number in the comparison. For example, you have X=55 and Y=66. You can use the following script to compare X and Y in a condition:

In the given source code, we used the (($X > $Y)) that returns true when the value of X is greater than Y.

The double parentheses are used to create the integer arithmetic operations. It is a built-in feature of the Bash script that returns either 1 for true or zero for false. Now, let’s execute the bash script to get the following result:

Similarly, you can use the greater than or equal comparison using the >= command. When X is greater than Y, it returns true.

This script provides the following result in the terminal:

2. Compare Two Numbers Using -Gt Command

You can use the -gt command in the script to check the greater number in the condition. Here is the Bash script example that you can try:

The -gt command (greater than) checks if one value is greater than the other. Once you run a Bash script, you will get the following result:

In the same way, you can use the –ge (greater than or equal) command to check the greater than or equals to numerical comparison:

You will get the following result by executing the script in the terminal:

Conclusion

This is how you can efficiently perform the greater-than numerical comparison in a Bash script. You can compare variables, strings, and numbers using the script’s > or -gt command. We used the multiple examples to describe the methods to compare two numbers in Bash. Similarly, you can use < or -lt commands to evaluate the less than numerical comparison.