How do I echo a string with multiple spaces in bash "untouched"?

I assigned a var like this:

MYCUSTOMTAB='     '

But using it in echo both:

echo $MYCUSTOMTAB"blah blah"

echo -e $MYCUSTOMTAB"blah blah"

just returns a single space and the rest of the string:

 blah blah

How can I print the full string untouched? I want to use it for have a custom indent because t is too much wide for my tastes.

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Answers:

Method 1

Method 2

Method 3

Method 4

Answers:

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Method 1

Put your variable inside double quote to prevent field splitting, which ate your spaces:

$ MYCUSTOMTAB='     '
$ echo "${MYCUSTOMTAB}blah blah"
     blah blah

Method 2

As suggested in this answer quoting the variable is enough.

The reason why quoting is needed in your case is because without it bash applies the split+glob operator onto the expansion of $MYCUSTOMTAB. The default value of $IFS contains the TAB character, so in echo -e $MYCUSTOMTAB"blah blah", $MYCUSTOMTAB is just split into nothing so it becomes the same as if you had written:

echo -e "blah blah"

(you probably don’t want -e here btw).

You can also use printf instead of echo:

printf '%sn' "$MYCUSTOMTAB"

printf '%sn' "${MYCUSTOMTAB}blah blah"

Or if you want printf to do the same kind of n, t expansions that echo -e does, use %b instead of %s:

printf '%bn' "${MYCUSTOMTAB}blah blah"

For reference read Why is printf better than echo?

Method 3

I think you just have to use double quotes for your variable

echo -e "$MYCUSTOMTAB"."blah blah"

Method 4

I know your question is tagged bash but anyway, for maximum portability and reliability, I would use:

printf "%sblah blahn" "$MYCUSTOMTAB"

someString="blah blah"
printf "%s%sn" "$MYCUSTOMTAB" "$someString"

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0

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