> Yes it works! Thanks you very much. > Iif you need to multiply anything that is not integer, it will not work. In this case you can define a little function to do the math, like this: calc(){ eval awk \'BEGIN{printf \"%12.8f\\n\", $@}\'; } alat=10.2 c_over_a=$(calc $alat/6.4) echo $c_over_a hth -- Lorenzo Paulatto - Paris