How to use a variable without a space before the next word?

Question

I have a simple bash script that looks like this:

RED=$(tput setaf 1)
echo "$REDERROR - ..."

and I want it to print ERROR in red.

If i change my code to this:

RED=$(tput setaf 1)
echo "$RED ERROR - ..."

it prints ERROR in red but with a leading space.

So how can I eliminate that leading space and still reference my variable $RED before it?

Answer 1

Use curly braces:

echo "${RED}ERROR - ..."

String concatenation also works:

echo "$RED""ERROR - ..."

(Quotes around $RED aren't technically needed given its particular contents (no spaces or other field seperators) and therefore echo $RED"ERROR - ..." will give the same result.)

Answer 2

You can use:

 echo $RED"ERROR - ..."