In bash script, how to assign output of a command to a variable while keeping tabs?


 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting In bash script, how to assign output of a command to a variable while keeping tabs?
# 1  
Old 06-27-2011
In bash script, how to assign output of a command to a variable while keeping tabs?

Hi, wondering if it's been asked before but didn't find matches from google. Basically I have this line:
Code:
myvar=$(echo -e "a\tb")

Now somehow the '\t' from the echo output gets replaced with white space and then stored in $myvar.

It creates a problem for me later to use tab as delimiter to do cut on $myvar. Anyway to keep the tabs?

Last edited by Franklin52; 06-28-2011 at 04:41 AM.. Reason: Please use code tags for code and data samples, thank you
# 2  
Old 06-27-2011
The TAB is still there, you are just printing the variable in a wrong way.. Try this:
Code:
echo "$myvar"

This User Gave Thanks to bartus11 For This Post:
# 3  
Old 06-27-2011
Gosh..I knew it's gonna be easy, but didn't think this easy Smilie Thank you, and dumb me...Smilie
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

9 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

How do I assign the output of a command to a variable within a loop in bash?

In the else of the main if condition . else set lnk = $(readlink -f <path> | cut -d '/' -f7) echo "$lnk" if ] When I run the above on command line , the execution seems to be fine and I get the desired output. But when I try to assign it to a variable within a loop... (12 Replies)
Discussion started by: sankasu
12 Replies

2. Shell Programming and Scripting

Unable to assign command output to variable

Code set -x STATUS="0" echo $STATUS for i in `ls -ltr Report*|awk '{ print $9 }'` do if then flg = "`head -1 "$i" |cut -c 31-33`" echo `head -1 "$i" |cut -c 31-33` echo $flg if then echo "having Fun" STATUS="2" else echo "no Fun" fi fi (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: Funkeydude
2 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

assign awk output to bash variable

greetings all, I am have a heck of a time trying to accomplish a very simple thing. I have an array of "shortname<spaces>id" created from a dscl output. I want to assign shortname=word1 and id=word2. I have tried shortname=$(${textArray} | awk '{print $1}') - and get 'awk : cannot open... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: macnetdaemon
3 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

Assign command (with pipe) output to a variable

Hi , I would like to assign command (with pipe) output to a variable. The code is as follows. The goal of the code is to get the last folder folder with a particular name pattern. myDate=`ls | grep 2009 | tail -1` echo "myDate=" $myDate However, in the presence of the pipe, the code... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: jeff_cen
3 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

how to assign the output of the interective script to the variable

Hi, I work in ksh88. I have an interective script which prompts the user for the input and returns numeric value depending on the input provided. I need to call this script inside another script and then assign the resulting output the the variable. The call like that A=`my script` obviously... (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: aoussenko
6 Replies

6. Shell Programming and Scripting

How to assign the result of a SQL command to more than one variable in shell script.

Hi Friends... Please assist me to assign the result of a SQL query that results two column, to two variables. Pls find the below code that I write for assigning one column to one variable. and please correct if anything wrong.. #! /bin/sh no=' sqlplus -s uname/password@DBname... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: little_wonder
4 Replies

7. Shell Programming and Scripting

Assign bash command to variable

Hi I am trying to write a function that needs to be able to assign the last run shell command to a variable. The actual command string itself not the exit code of the command. I am using the bash command recall ability to do this as follows: alias pb='ps | grep ash' ... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: Moxy
3 Replies

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

how to assign sql output data to shell script variable

Hi Guys ! I am new to unix and want to find out how we can make sql statement data to shell script variable? Any help/suggestion is greatly appreciated -Chandra (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: kattics
1 Replies

9. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

how to assign an output to a variable

Hi, I am giving a grep command, and i am getting the output. i want to store it in a variable for eg a = grep '12345' /dir/1/2/log.txt ( the output is number) b= grep 'basic' /dir/1/2/log1.txt (in this case the output is character) so how to assign the output of grep to a variable ... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: vasikaran
1 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question