Using IFS rather than whitepace in bash

Question

There is a quite nasty expression that want to echo using bash.

The expression is:

'one two --

Note: There is white space after --.

So I have:

IFS=
echo 'one$IFStwoIFS--$IFS

But the result is:

one$IFStwo$IFS--$IFS

You have a typo - it is IFS, not ISF. Also, you don't have the completing single quote. — codeforester
– codeforester, Commented Jun 2, 2018 at 13:52

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-02 10:03:08Z

3

You have few issues with your approach:

Within single quote variables are not expanded in shell
In the string one$IFStwo$IFS--$IFS first instance of $IFS will not be expanded since you have string two next to $IFS so it attempts to expand non-existent variable $IFStwo.
Default value of $IFS is $' \t\n'

You can use:

echo "one${IFS}two$IFS--$IFS"

which will expand to (cat -A output):

one ^I$
two ^I$
-- ^I$

answered Jun 2, 2018 at 10:03

anubhava

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8 Comments

anubhava Over a year ago

Try this: ( IFS=' ' && echo "<one${IFS}two$IFS--$IFS>"; )

yasin Over a year ago

good... this worked: IFS=' ';echo$IFS"'or${IFS}true$IFS--$IFS". pardon. If i replace something else with IFS=' ' . I mean I want to replace something else with whitespace in IFS=' '. What should I do/

anubhava Over a year ago

Didn't get but ( IFS=':'; echo "<one${IFS}two$IFS--$IFS>"; ) also works fine.

yasin Over a year ago

I need a character else instead of whitespace but working as whitespace... when I run bash I need to hide whitespace

yasin Over a year ago

Really thank you for supporting me. I mean what special character I can use in IFS=' ' instead of whitespace?

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