> $ maths exp="sqrt(ia*ia - ib*ib)" ia=s8a20110719_00014_0003_nep.sdf I always omit spaces in TRANSFORM expressions on the command line to avoid parsing issues, maths exp="sqrt(ia*ia-ib*ib)" Otherwise you need to escape the quotes because of the spaces maths exp='"sqrt(ia*ia - ib*ib)"' as the double quotes need to be passed literally to the application. Malcolm