CODEWITHSUNDEEP
shell
ayifos
ayifos

Reputation: 65

How to append a newline to a variable in sh?

var  = "a common string \n $var"

I am passing this var to some other method and I am printing var in that other method.i am not able to edit that other method. So echo -e and printf statements cannot be used by me. But I need that \n to be printed as new line instead of that exact literal.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 6928

Answers (2)

Eric
Eric

Reputation: 1521

If you are setting var in shell script you can actually use printf as follows:

var=$(printf "a common string\n%s" "$var")

or, in newer bash

printf -v var "a common string\n%s" "$var"

If your shell supports the $'…' construct, you can do this instead:

var=$'a common string \n'"$var"

Upvotes: 4

yorammi
yorammi

Reputation: 6458

Treat the variable as a list with '\n' delimiter so you can go over it in a loop and print each item on it in a new line, something like:

for item in $var; do 
  echo $item
done

Upvotes: 0

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