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> 「だから得 **だかどうだか** 早く水槽を見なさいって言ってるでしょっ。」  
>  Therefore _something about profit/advantage_ I told you to look in the tank
> soon, right?

I can't understand 得だかどうだか nor how it attaches to the rest of the sentence.

It looks a bit like the かどうか that means 'whether or not', so may be "whether
or not you make profit I told you to go look in the tank", but I thought the
pattern was Xかどうか or Xだったかどうか for the past, but definitely not X **だ** かどうか.
And then there's the other だ. I'm rambling and I'm stuck.
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2016-12-16T23:09:02.920
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2016-12-17T06:20:12.110
7944
question
grammar
Meaning of だかどうだか
In meaning, one could say:

「得｛とく｝だかどうだか」＝「得なのかどうなのか」＝「得なのかどうか」＝「得かどうか」

= " ** _(to find out) whether or not it is profitable/beneficial/economical,
etc_**."

Without more context, there is no way I could translate the 「得」 part.
「得だかどうだか」 functions adverbially and it modifies 「見なさい」. If it helps
any,「得だかどうだか」 literally means " ** _Is it 得? How is it?_** ".

「～～だかどうだか」 just sounds more informal/colloquial than the others I listed. Not
everyone might use it, but absolutely no native speakers will be surprised if
anyone said it in informal speech, either.

In fact, you will find a very similar expression in this well-known children's
song.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QICdEwD5GE>
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2016-12-16T23:43:38.103
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2016-12-17T06:20:12.110
2016-12-17T06:20:12.110
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answer