Question

Can someone help me to convert a hexadecimal number to decimal number in a shell script?

E.g., I want to convert the hexadecimal number bfca3000 to decimal using a shell script. I basically want the difference of two hexadecimal numbers.

My code is:

var3=`echo "ibase=16; $var1" | bc`
var4=`echo "ibase=16; $var2" | bc`
var5=$(($var4-$var3))               # [Line 48]

When executing, I get this error:

Line 48: -: syntax error: operand expected (error token is "-")

Answer 1

To convert from hex to decimal, there are many ways to do it in the shell or with an external program:

With bash:

$ echo $((16#FF))
255

with bc:

$ echo "ibase=16; FF" | bc
255

with perl:

$ perl -le 'print hex("FF");'
255

with printf :

$ printf "%d\n" 0xFF
255

with python:

$ python -c 'print(int("FF", 16))'
255

with ruby:

$ ruby -e 'p "FF".to_i(16)'
255

with node.js:

$ node -e "console.log(parseInt('FF', 16))"
255

with rhino:

$ rhino -e "print(parseInt('FF', 16))"
255

with groovy:

$ groovy -e 'println Integer.parseInt("FF",16)'
255