Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out a way to encapsulate a tab character, or four or five space characters into a string variable to be used in my script. I'm using the bash shell.

I tried
$variablename=" <string text>"

but it didnt give me the output i wanted (output was still justified to left). I tried \t right after the first quote but it printed the \t. I also tried removing the spaces and inserting an actual tab character but got the same result.

Another thing i wondered was if anyone knew how to format a here document so that if i have a line at the end of the here statement that prompts a user to enter a number, the cursor and their input stays on that line.

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

You need to enclose your string in quotes when outputting it.

Code:

$ str="   <string text>"                         <<<  3 spaces included
$ echo $str
<string text>
$ echo "$str"
   <string text>
$ str="         <string text>"                   <<<  tab included 
$ echo $str
<string text>
$ echo "$str"
        <string text>
$

Thanks very much, I didn't think to try that.

Anyone know how to keep the cursor on the line in the here statement?

please elaborate - this is too vague.

try one of these:

echo -n alskdhfalkshdf
print -n alkshdlkfhaslhdf
echo aklsdlhfaskdf\c

I had a more elaborate description of the problem in my original post.

I have a 'here' statement in my program.

Code:

cat <<thenameoftheHERE
 
 
thenameoftheHERE

which is supposed to print to screen whatever i type between the two statements formatted exactly as i type it. My final formatted piece of text is prompting the user to enter a number, like this:

Please enter a number:


but the cursor is going two lines down and justified with the left margin and i want the cursor and the number to appear right after the colon in the prompt statement like this:

Please enter a number: 5

Thanks for any help

leave everything but the final "Please enter a number: " in the HERE document.

Then use:

print -n "Please enter a number: "