CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bash
Tri Nguyen
Tri Nguyen

Reputation: 11138

Simplest way to insert a new line in a bash string

I have a bash string that looks like this:

string="This is the first line.
This is the second line"

I would like to convert this into a git commit message, so I need to insert a blank line after the first line to make it the commit title, and the second line the commit body, so that the expansion looks like this:

This is the first line.

This is the second line

What is the simplest way to achieve this in bash?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 59

Answers (1)

gniourf_gniourf
gniourf_gniourf

Reputation: 46903

This should do (it replaces the first newline character found by two consecutive newline characters):

string="This is the first line.
This is the second line"
new_string=${string/$'\n'/$'\n\n'}
echo "$new_string"

The ${var/pattern/replacement} is a Parameter Expansion; it expands to the expansion of var where the first occurrence of pattern is replaced by replacement.

The $'...' is known as ANSI-C quoting and will allow escape sequences.

Upvotes: 4

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