POSIX SH build loop variable with elements containing spaces

Question

Here's the code I need:

#!/bin/sh

x1="a1 a2"
x2="b1 b2"

list=SOMETHING

for x in "$list"
do
    echo $x
done

And the output I want:

a1 a2
b1 b2

The question is: what should SOMETHING be? I want $list to behave just as $@ does.

Notes: I can't use $IFS and I can't eval the entire loop.

related: unix.stackexchange.com/questions/102891/… | bash: stackoverflow.com/questions/9084257/… — Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com
– Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com, Commented Apr 21, 2018 at 8:27

Dennis Williamson · Accepted Answer · 2010-05-30 00:31:39Z

3

This is probably as close as you can get:

#!/bin/sh
x1="a1 a2"
x2="b1 b2"

set -- "$x1" "$x2"

for x in "$@"
do
    # echo $x
    echo "[${x}]"    # proves that the lines are being printed separately
done

Output:

[a1 a2]
[b1 b2]

In Bash you can use an array:

#!/bin/bash
x1="a1 a2"
x2="b1 b2"

list=("$x1" "$x2")

for x in "${list[@]}"
do
    # echo $x
    echo "[${x}]"    # proves that the lines are being printed separately
done

Same output.

answered May 30, 2010 at 0:31

Dennis Williamson

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Comments

stepancheg · Accepted Answer · 2010-05-29 23:37:22Z

0

It is not possible in standard POSIX shell.

answered May 29, 2010 at 23:37

stepancheg

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1 Comment

dandu Over a year ago

As $@ does what I want I was hoping it would be possible

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