Bash LeftPad String with spaces inside variable

Question

I wanted something like this:

  CUSTOMERNAME="THIS IS A TEST"
  printf "| %-30s " $CUSTOMERNAME

But the problem is, that the value CUSTOMERNAME has some space. The output looks likes this:

 | THIS                           | IS                             | A                              | TEST

But I wanted something like this

 | THIS IS A TEST                |

What can I do? Any ideas?

Thanks, Hauke

possible duplicate of [I just assigned a variable, but echo $variable shows something else](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29378566/i-just-assigned-a-variable-but-echo-variable-shows-something-else) — Etan Reisner, May 07 '15 at 21:24

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered May 07 '15 at 20:24

4

To prevent word expansion, double quote the variable:

printf "| %-30s " "$CUSTOMERNAME"

answered May 07 '15 at 20:24

choroba

1

And add an echo after the variable to get a newline, `printf "| %-30s " "$CUSTOMERNAME"; echo`. – mattias May 07 '15 at 20:27
@Hauke Basically **always** quote your variables. – Etan Reisner May 07 '15 at 21:24

1 Answers1