I have a variable final_list which is appended by a variable url in a loop as:
while read url; do
final_list="$final_list"$'\n'"$url"
done < file.txt
To my surprise the \n is appended as an space, so the result is:
url1 url2 url3
while I wanted:
url1
url2
url3
What is wrong?
New lines are very much there in the variable "$final_list". echo it like this with double quotes:
echo "$final_list"
url1
url2
url3
OR better use printf:
printf "%s\n" "$final_list"
url1
url2
url3
$final_list is treated as a word separator, not literal characters to print. echo receives only 3 arguments, the actual URLs. With quotes, echo receives a single argument, the string that contains urls and the newlines that separate them.It may depend on how you're trying to display the final result. Try outputting the resulting variable within double-quotes:
echo "$final_list"
Adding one more possible option if anyone like to try.
With String Value :
Command : echo "This is the string I want to print in next line" | tr " " "\n"
Output :
This
is
the
string
I
want
to
print
in
next
line
With Vars used :
finallist="url1 url2 url3"
url="url4 url5"
echo "$finallist $url" | tr " " "\n"
Output :
url1
url2
url3
url4
url5
if you like to have few words to be in one line and few in next line, try with different separater. (like - or : or ; or etc...)
