NAME

seq — print sequences of numbers

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

The seq utility prints a sequence of numbers, one per line (default), from first (default 1), to near last as possible, in increments of incr (default 1). When first is larger than last, the default incr is -1.

All numbers are interpreted as floating point.

Normally integer values are printed as decimal integers.

The seq utility accepts the following options:

-f format, --format format

Use a printf(3) style format to print each number. Only the A, a, E, e, F, f, G, g, and % conversion characters are valid, along with any optional flags and an optional numeric minimum field width or precision. The format can contain character escape sequences in backslash notation as defined in ANSI X3.159-1989 (“ANSI C89”). The default is %g.

-s string, --separator string

Use string to separate numbers. The string can contain character escape sequences in backslash notation as defined in ANSI X3.159-1989 (“ANSI C89”). The default is \n.

-t string, --terminator string

Use string to terminate sequence of numbers. The string can contain character escape sequences in backslash notation as defined in ANSI X3.159-1989 (“ANSI C89”). This option is useful when the default separator does not contain a \n.

-w, --fixed-width

Equalize the widths of all numbers by padding with zeros as necessary. This option has no effect with the -f option. If any sequence numbers will be printed in exponential notation, the default conversion is changed to %e.

EXIT STATUS

The seq utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

EXAMPLES

Generate a sequence from 1 to 3 (included) with a default increment of 1:

# seq 1 3
1
2
3

Generate a sequence from 3 to 1 (included) with a default increment of -1:

# seq 3 1
3
2
1

Generate a sequence from 0 to 0.1 (included) with an increment of 0.05 and padding with leading zeroes.

# seq -w 0 .05 .1
0.00
0.05
0.10

Generate a sequence from 1 to 3 (included) with a default increment of 1, a custom separator string and a custom terminator:

# seq -s "-->" -t "[end of list]\n" 1 3
1-->2-->3-->[end of list]

Generate a sequence from 1 to 2 (included) with an increment of 0.2 and print the results with two digits after the decimal point (using a printf(3) style format):

# seq -f %.2f 1 0.2 2
1.00
1.20
1.40
1.60
1.80
2.00

SEE ALSO

jot(1), printf(1), printf(3)

HISTORY

The seq command first appeared in Version 8 AT&T UNIX. A seq command appeared in NetBSD 3.0, and was ported to FreeBSD 9.0. This command was based on the command of the same name in Plan 9 from Bell Labs and the GNU core utilities. The GNU seq command first appeared in the 1.13 shell utilities release.

BUGS

The -w option does not handle the transition from pure floating point to exponent representation very well. The seq command is not bug for bug compatible with other implementations.