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[sed]: syntax to insert N spaces in front of a string

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# 1  
Old 08-09-2016
[sed]: syntax to insert N spaces in front of a string
Dear all,

I would like to insert N blankspaces in front of a string using sed command

To give an example (N=10), I tried that code:

Code:
[x004191a@xsnl11p317a tmp]$ echo "abcd" | sed 's/^/ \{10,\}&/'

but I failed, by obtaining that result:

Code:
 {10,}abcd

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks in advance,

Didier.
# 2  
Old 08-09-2016
Code:
x="ABCD"
n=10
n=$((n + ${#x}))
printf "%${n}s" $x

This User Gave Thanks to balajesuri For This Post:
dae
# 3  
Old 08-09-2016
The replacement part (right hand side) of sed's substitution command does not use regex, so with pure sed you can only type 10 spaces.
Code:
sed 's/^/          /g'

This User Gave Thanks to Scrutinizer For This Post:
dae
# 4  
Old 08-09-2016
...some glibberish with perl...
Code:
 echo -e "lorem\nipsum\ndolor\nsit\namet" | { N=10; perl -pe "s/^/' 'x$N/e" ; }

Code:
          lorem
          ipsum
          dolor
          sit
          amet

Last edited by stomp; 08-10-2016 at 06:57 AM..
This User Gave Thanks to stomp For This Post:
dae
# 5  
Old 08-09-2016
Thanks to all of you, Balajesuri, Scrutinizer & Stomp !
# 6  
Old 08-09-2016
Code:
n=10 ; echo "ABCD" | sed ':lbl; /^ \{'$n'\}/! {s/^/ /;b lbl}'

These 2 Users Gave Thanks to rdrtx1 For This Post:
dae stomp
# 7  
Old 08-09-2016
@rdrtx1: Interesting solution. Took some seconds to get it Smilie
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