Re: Integer (re)declaration keeps string values

[Lawrence Velázquez]

> On Jul 22, 2020, at 4:12 AM, andrej--- via Bug reports for the GNU
> Bourne Again SHell <bug-bash@gnu.org> wrote:
> 
> Description:
>       Integer variables don't get (re)parsed when (re)declared.
> 
> Repeat-By:
>       a=z
>        declare -i a
>        echo $a  # z (I'd expect emptiness or 0)

The man page explicitly says that arithmetic evaluation is performed
*on assignment*.

    -i  The variable is treated as an integer; arithmetic evaluation
        (see ARITHMETIC EVALUATION above) is performed when the
        variable is assigned a value.

Sure enough:

    % bash
    bash-5.0$ a=z
    bash-5.0$ declare -i a
    bash-5.0$ echo "$a"
    z
    bash-5.0$ a=z
    bash-5.0$ echo "$a"
    0

vq