#!/usr/bin/env bash INPUT_FILE=input.txt paste \ <(awk '{print $1}' $INPUT_FILE | sort -n ) \ <(awk '{print $2}' $INPUT_FILE | sort -n ) | awk '{ $1 > $2 ? diff = ($1 - $2) : diff = ($2 - $1) ; print diff}' | paste -s -d "+" | bc