BASH - incrementing a variable

[lewashby]

In the following script I can't get the variable STARTPOINT to increment by 3 each time through the loop. I con't get it because the variable NUMBEROFGROUPS is incrementing by -1 each time and both increment lines look identical to me.

#!/bin/bash
set -x

leading_zeros() {
    local NUM=${1}
    local NUMBEROFDIGITS=${2}
    local NUMBEROFGROUPS=${3}

    while [[ $(( ${#NUM} / 3 )) -ne ${NUMBEROFGROUPS} ]] || [[ ${#NUM} -lt 3  ]]; do
        NUM="0${NUM}"
    done

    echo ${NUM}
}

read -p "Enter a number no higher than the billions range" NUM

NUMBEROFDIGITS=${#NUM}
NUMBEROFGROUPS=$( expr ${NUMBEROFDIGITS} / 3 )

if [[ ${NUMBEROFDIGITS} -lt 3 ]]; then # {
    NUMBEROFGROUPS=1
    NUM=$(leading_zeros ${NUM} ${NUMBEROFDIGITS} ${NUMBEROFGROUPS})
elif [[ `expr ${NUMBEROFDIGITS} % 3` -ne 0 ]]; then # } {
    let NUMBEROFGROUPS=NUMBEROFGROUPS+1
    NUM=$(leading_zeros ${NUM} ${NUMBEROFDIGITS} ${NUMBEROFGROUPS})
fi # }

while [[ ${NUMBEROFGROUPS} -gt 0 ]]; do # {
    STARTPOINT=0
    CURRENTGROUP=${NUM:${STARTPOINT}:3}
    echo ${CURRENTGROUP}

    let STARTPOINT=$(( ${STARTPOINT} + 3 ))
    let NUMBEROFGROUPS=$(( ${NUMBEROFGROUPS} -1 ))
done # }

[rch1231]

Hello,

Don't you need to move the STARTPOINT=0 outside the while loop? It is resetting the variable every time through the while loop.