Numeric constants

A numeric constant stands for a number. It can be an integer, a decimal fraction, or a number in an exponential notation. Some examples of numeric constant values are as follows:

• 100
• 1.10
• 1.05e+2
• 1.05e-1

Any nonzero numeric value in AWK is true in the case of expression evaluation, and zero is false. For example:

$ vi numeric.awk

BEGIN{
if ( 1 )
    print "numeric 1 "
if ( 1.234 )
    print "numeric 1.234"
if ( 1.234e )
    print "numeric 1.234e"
if ( 0 )
    print "false"
} 

$ awk -f numeric.awk

The output of the execution of the preceding code is as follows:

numeric 1 
numeric 1.234
numeric 1.234e