In Ubuntu `14.04.1 LTS 64-bit` bash I am declearing floating point variables by multiplying floating point bash variables in `bc` with scale set to 3; however, I cannot get the number of digits after the decimal point to be zero and get rid of the zero to the left of the decimal point. How can I transform, say `0.005000000` into `.005`? This is necessary due to my file naming convention. Thanks for your recommendations.

UPDATE: Can I use it for already defined shell variables and redefining them? The following code gives me an error.

 ~/Desktop/MEEP$ printf "%.3f\n" $w
 bash: printf: 0.005000: invalid number
 0,000