bash question

[Derek D. Martin]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

At some point hitherto, Thomas M. Albright hath spake thusly:
> If the due date is greater than today, it outputs the message "Due in x
> days." If the due date is less than today I get a message saying "You
> are -x days past due." How can I convert the negative number into a
> positive one in bash?

  var=`echo $var | sed 's/-//'`

or

  # this is portable, but not as efficient as bash math
  if [ $var -lt 0 ]; then
	var=`expr 0 - $var`
  fi


- -- 
Derek Martin               ddm at pizzashack.org    
- ---------------------------------------------
I prefer mail encrypted with PGP/GPG!
GnuPG Key ID: 0x81CFE75D
Retrieve my public key at http://pgp.mit.edu
Learn more about it at http://www.gnupg.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org

iD8DBQE9j1gLdjdlQoHP510RAgKrAKCAzvEpQ7bIhgDAhNeraF79XObtwACcDeHM
15PQIaIFgyGA1vbbhyZU79c=
=hjsI
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----