test: too many arguments in bash script

Question

I have an expression like following in a bash script:

if test $year % 4 -eq 0

but it's throwing a warning line 5: test: too many arguments

what is the problem here? how I can fix this?

ruakh · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-06 07:19:00Z

4

The test builtin doesn't do arithmetic; it doesn't understand the % notation.

If you really want to use test, then you could write:

if test $((year % 4)) -eq 0

(using arithmetic expansion; the $((year % 4)) bit gets replaced with the relevant value before test is invoked); but I think it's simpler and clearer to write:

if ((year % 4 == 0))

(using an arithmetic expression instead).

answered May 6, 2018 at 7:19

ruakh

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