Shell Programming and Scripting

sed 's/$/ /'

sed 's/$/              /'

printf "%s%*s<\n" "Mary walks at the park every day with her children" 14 " "
Mary walks at the park every day with her children              <

awk '{print $0};END{printf("%14s\n"," ")}' ORS=" " Input_file

awk -vVAR="14" '{for(i=NF;i<=NF;i++){while(j++<=VAR){A=A OFS};$i=$i A}}1'  Input_file

#!/bin/bash
# spaces.sh
spaces=""
VARIABLE=$(($[ RANDOM % 10 ]+1))
text="Mary walks with her dog."
#
for n in $( seq 1 1 $VARIABLE ); do spaces=$spaces" "; done
#
# At the end.
echo -n "$text$spaces"
# Just a separater colon for clarity.
echo -n ":"
# At the start.
echo "$spaces$text"
# Anywhere you choose.
echo "${text:0:7}$spaces${text:7}"

Last login: Sat Jan 24 19:18:07 on ttys000
AMIGA:barrywalker~> cd Desktop/Code/Shell
AMIGA:barrywalker~/Desktop/Code/Shell> ./spaces.sh
Mary walks with her dog.   :   Mary walks with her dog.
Mary wa   lks with her dog.
AMIGA:barrywalker~/Desktop/Code/Shell> ./spaces.sh
Mary walks with her dog.         :         Mary walks with her dog.
Mary wa         lks with her dog.
AMIGA:barrywalker~/Desktop/Code/Shell> ./spaces.sh
Mary walks with her dog.      :      Mary walks with her dog.
Mary wa      lks with her dog.
AMIGA:barrywalker~/Desktop/Code/Shell> ./spaces.sh
Mary walks with her dog.   :   Mary walks with her dog.
Mary wa   lks with her dog.
AMIGA:barrywalker~/Desktop/Code/Shell> _

$ echo $VARIABLE 
14
$ echo $string 
Mary walks at the park every day with her children
$ echo $string | sed -e 'h;z;:bc;s/^\.\{,'$VARIABLE'\}$/&\./;tbc;x;G;s/\n\.//'
Mary walks at the park every day with her children..............

NB=14
echo "Mary walks at the park every day with her children" |  sed ":A;s/ / /${NB};t;s/$/ /;tA;"

VAR="              "
echo "Mary walks at the park every day with her children" |  sed "s/$/${VAR}/"

echo "Mary walks at the park every day with her children${VAR}"