Bash : Duplicate a string variable n times [duplicate]

Question

I have a variable : str='abc'

I would like to copy it n times, with a space between each string, so the echo gives, for n=3 :

echo $str
abc abc abc

I don't want a space after the last abc

I've already seen the link mentionned but they doesn't help. The last answer from @Amadan is the good one thanks, but I can't accept it :/

Possible duplicate of How to duplicate string in Bash?, Linux command to repeat a string n times, How to duplicate strings in each line using bash?, How can I repeat a character in Bash?, etc. — jww
– jww, Commented Jul 1, 2019 at 12:07
@jww. I thought I looked through all of those, but the space separator makes this a non-duplicate — Mad Physicist
– Mad Physicist, Commented Jul 1, 2019 at 12:14
Here's something relevant though: superuser.com/a/462400/297512 — Mad Physicist
– Mad Physicist, Commented Jul 1, 2019 at 12:15

sungtm · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-01 13:12:13Z

0

One more way:

eval echo {1..$n} | sed "s/[[:digit:]]*/${var}/g"

Example:

n=3
var=abc

eval echo {1..$n} | sed "s/[[:digit:]]*/${var}/g"
abc abc abc

answered Jul 1, 2019 at 13:05

sungtm

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3 Comments

Note: has problems when $var has regexp special characters (or slash); fine otherwise.

@Amadan, is it OK by replacing '/' with '|' symbol in sed delimiters like eval echo {1..$n} | sed "s|[[:digit:]]*|${var}|g" ?

Of course. But then your variable is restricted from having | in it.