$ bc <<< 5*4 20 $ bc <<< 5+4 9 $ bc <<< 5-4 1 $ echo "5*4" | bc 20 $ echo "5+4" | bc 9 $ echo "5-4" | bc 1 $ cat calcFile 5+5 6+7 $ bc < calcFile 10 13 Q2. Can I use the result of last calculation within the same expression that is passed to bc? $ echo "5-4;last+6" | bc 1 7 NOTE – You can also use a dot (.) instead of the variable name ‘last’. Here is an example : $ echo "5-4;.+6" | bc 1 7 $ echo "sqrt(10)" | bc 3 $ echo "scale=1;sqrt(10)" | bc 3.1 $ echo "scale=10;sqrt(10)" | bc 3.1622776601 -> Convert decimal to hexadecimal $ echo 'obase=16;128' | bc 80 -> Convert hexadecimal to decimal $ echo 'ibase=16;obase=A;80' | bc 128 -> Convert binary to decimal $ echo 'ibase=2;obase=A;10000000' | bc 128