Question

I am trying to create a function that converts a time string to total minutes ie “11:22” would return 682

str_to_min(){
    ARR_T=$(echo $1 | tr ":" "\n")
    HOUR=${ARR_T[0]}
    MINUTE=${ARR_T[1]}
    let MIN=(60*$HOUR)
    let MIN=($MIN+$MINUTE)
    #echo total minutes $MIN
    return $MIN
}

str_to_min "11:22"

but i keep getting the following error:

./find_service_to_display.sh: line 5: let: MIN=(60*11: missing )' (error token is "11")
./find_service_to_display.sh: line 6: let: MIN=(11: missing)’ (error token is “11”)

Answer 1

Try this:

str_to_min() {
    local hours=${1%:*};
    local mins=${1#*:};
    echo $((hours * 60 + mins));
}

You probably want ‘echo’ rather than ‘return’ unless you really want a return status (which acts like a program exit code).