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Bash Scripting Variable

Bash scripting with variables

Mark Lucernas
2020-08-09

Variable

Increment or Decrement an Integer Variable

With Arithmetic Expansion

var=$((var+1))
((var=var+1))
((var+=1))
((var++))

With let

let "var=var+1"
let "var+=1"
let "var++"

Incrementing variable with another variable

total=$(( ${var1_count} + ${var2_count} ))
# or
total=$(expr ${var1_count} + ${var2_count})

Finding best performing variable increment operation

Test Code

# To focus exclusively on the performance of each type of increment
# statement, we should exclude bash performing while loops from the
# performance measure. So, let's time individual scripts that
# increment $i in their own unique way.

# Declare i as an integer for tests 12 and 13.
echo > t12 'declare -i i; i=i+1'
echo > t13 'declare -i i; i+=1'
# Set i for test 14.
echo > t14 'i=0; i=$(expr $i + 1)'

x=100000
while ((x--)); do
    echo >> t0 'i=$((i+1))'
    echo >> t1 'i=$((i++))'
    echo >> t2 '((i=i+1))'
    echo >> t3 '((i+=1))'
    echo >> t4 '((i++))'
    echo >> t5 '((++i))'
    echo >> t6 'let "i=i+1"'
    echo >> t7 'let "i+=1"'
    echo >> t8 'let "i++"'
    echo >> t9 'let i=i+1'
    echo >> t10 'let i+=1'
    echo >> t11 'let i++'
    echo >> t12 'i=i+1'
    echo >> t13 'i+=1'
    echo >> t14 'i=$(expr $i + 1)'
done

for script in t0 t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6 t7 t8 t9 t10 t11 t12 t13 t14; do
    line1="$(head -1 "$script")"
    printf "%-24s" "$line1"
    { time bash "$script"; } |& grep user
    # Since stderr is being piped to grep above, this will confirm
    # there are no errors from running the command:
    eval "$line1"
    rm "$script"
done

Output

i=$((i+1))              user    0m0.992s
i=$((i++))              user    0m0.964s
((i=i+1))               user    0m0.760s
((i+=1))                user    0m0.700s
((i++))                 user    0m0.644s
((++i))                 user    0m0.556s
let "i=i+1"             user    0m1.116s
let "i+=1"              user    0m1.100s
let "i++"               user    0m1.008s
let i=i+1               user    0m0.952s
let i+=1                user    0m1.040s
let i++                 user    0m0.820s
declare -i i; i=i+1     user    0m0.528s
declare -i i; i+=1      user    0m0.492s
i=0; i=$(expr $i + 1)   user    0m5.464s

NOTE: Decrementing integer variable need just switch + sign to -

Ref:


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