The Vertica Database Forums

Posted: **Tue Jan 15, 2013 5:37 pm**

Hi,

I am trying to set an environment variable in a shell script so that it'll contain two lines of text. According to what I found on the web I think all I need to use a "\n" for a new line, but it doesn't seem to work.

For instance:

Code: Select all

[root@verticatest1 ~]# test="line1\nline2"
[root@verticatest1 ~]# echo $test
line1\nline2

I would like to see this:

Code: Select all

[root@verticatest1 ~]# echo $test
line1
line2

Anyone know how I can do this?

Posted: **Tue Jan 15, 2013 6:59 pm**

Becky,

You can use the -e switch of the echo command so that it treats escaped characters as special characters...

Code: Select all

[knice@vlab ~]# jim="line1\nline2"
[knice@vlab ~]# echo -e $jim
line1
line2

Does that help?

Posted: **Wed Jan 16, 2013 5:34 pm**

Awesome, thank Jim! That'll work for me!

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