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How do I convert a word into characters using the shell script ? As an example user to "u s e r"

mohamed ahmed
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    Possible duplicate of [Bash: Split string into character array](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7578930/bash-split-string-into-character-array) – sinclair Apr 30 '17 at 12:11
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    Where is your attempt? Did you even bother to put your exact title into google? Several of the hits on the first page alone would solve your query. – grail Apr 30 '17 at 12:25
  • If it had been tagged `bash`, that would open up using array indexes and a C-style for loop, e.g. `a=user; for ((i=0;i<${#a};i++)); do ((i == 0)) && b=${a:i:1} || b="$b ${a:i:1}"; done` – David C. Rankin Apr 30 '17 at 15:09

2 Answers2

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$ echo user | sed 's/./& /g'
u s e r
jlliagre
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2

Something like this work fine in bash 4:

$ readarray -t arr < <(grep -o '.' <<<"user")

$ declare -p arr   #Just prints the array
declare -a arr=([0]="u" [1]="s" [2]="e" [3]="r")

$ echo "${arr[2]}"
e
George Vasiliou
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