piping seq to printf for number formatting

Question

I'm trying to print the following pattern using printf and seq:

My problem is once I use:

seq 0 10 | xargs printf %04d

all my output is formatted into the same line likeso:

0000000100020003

I still can't get the hang of using xargs. How do I use it correctly in this case?

score 41 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 02 '13 at 23:22

41

The printf command does not output a line break if you don't ask it to. Try:

seq 0 10 | xargs printf '%04d\n'

Note that you can achieve the same with just seq, since it allows specifying a printf-style format:

seq -f %04g 0 10

answered Oct 02 '13 at 23:22

Joni

score 15 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 02 '13 at 23:23

15

you don't need printf or xargs. seq has -f option:

kent$  seq -f '%04G' 10
0001
0002
0003
0004
0005
0006
0007
0008
0009
0010

answered Oct 02 '13 at 23:23

Kent

unxnut · Answer 3 · 2013-10-03T00:38:21.663

5

seq 0 10 | xargs printf "%04d\n"

The original question is missing the newline character at the end of the printf. Simply adding a newline character fixes the issue.

edited Oct 03 '13 at 00:38

answered Oct 02 '13 at 23:24

unxnut

Please add some more explanation. – Szymon Oct 02 '13 at 23:46
Done. Though there is a better answer using the format on `seq`. – unxnut Oct 03 '13 at 00:39

3 Answers3