Max integer value

[Kellogg Unix Team]

I've HP-UX 11.00 (64 bit) on an N-class. When I'm doing arithmatic on an integer variable in 'ksh' shell script, I get negative values when it is more than 2 power 31. It looks like the default size of integer variable is 32-bit. Does anyone know if this can be changed to 64-bit, either by changing some kernel parameter or within the shell script by some type definition.

Thanks,
Srinivas Emani

[Paul Hite · Accepted solution]

There is no way to induce ksh to use 64 bits. Sorry for the bad news.

To do arithmetic in ksh with no magnitude limit, you can use bc. Instead of:

((a=b+c))

do:

a=$(echo $b + $c | bc)

But a,b, and c must NOT be typeset to integers to do this.

[CHRIS_ANORUO]

Hi,

You can also use bc -l for decimals