#!/bin/bash make_chapters() { index=0 input=() for i do input[$index]="${i%.*}" ((index++)) done chapters=() index=1 chapters[$index]=${input[$((index-1))]} for ((i=1;i<${#input[@]};i++)) do if (( ${input[$i]} > "${chapters[$index]##* }" )) then chapters[$index]="${chapters[$index]} ${input[$i]}" else ((index++)) chapters[$index]="${input[$i]}" fi done printf "${chapters[1]}\n${chapters[2]}\n" } make_chapters "$@" #Example: #[%] ./script 30 33.993 76.123 0.6 43.234 87.234 130.345 #30 33 76 #0 43 87 130