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Can awk interpret algebraic fields?

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Hello,

I have a file with algebraic expressions as fields. I would like awk to interpret them (i.e., 
compute the results with specific values for each of the variables the expression contains).

I tried the following example (in a unix-like shell):
	echo "5.*a" | awk -v a=2 '{print 0+$1}'
but I get "5" as a result because awk only retains "5." and considers the rest as non-number 
characters (as far as I understand how it works).

Is it possible to have awk compute the algebraic expression and return 10, which is what I expect?

Thanks in advance for any advice,
Poutounet

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Can awk interpret algebraic fields? Poutounet <Poutou@net.com> - 2011-04-19 15:03 +0200
  Re: Can awk interpret algebraic fields? gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2011-04-19 13:39 +0000
  Re: Can awk interpret algebraic fields? spcecdt@armory.com (John DuBois) - 2011-04-19 11:42 -0500
    Re: Can awk interpret algebraic fields? Poutounet <Poutou@net.com> - 2011-04-22 11:36 +0200
      Re: Can awk interpret algebraic fields? Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou@hotmail.com> - 2011-04-22 14:55 +0200

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