Generate random float number in given specific range of numbers using Bash

Question

can someone help me in generating random float number with given specific range of number in bash (shell). I found below command but is their any other option ? (using awk or $rand commands.)

jot -p2  0 1

Answer 1

If you have GNU coreutils available, you could go with:

seq 0 .01 1 | shuf | head -n1

Where 0 is the start (inclusive), .01 is the increment, and 1 is the end (inclusive).

Answer 2

Without any external utilities, generate random real between 3 and 16.999:

a=3
b=17
echo "$((a+RANDOM%(b-a))).$((RANDOM%999))"

Answer 3

To generate 1 random floating point number between 3 and 17:

$ awk -v min=3 -v max=17 'BEGIN{srand(); print min+rand()*(max-min+1)}'
16.4038

To generate 5 random floating point numbers between 3 and 17:

$ awk -v min=3 -v max=17 -v num=5 'BEGIN{srand(); for (i=1;i<=num;i++) print min+rand()*(max-min+1)}'
15.1067
4.79238
3.04884
11.3647
15.1132

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