Insert text to file using bash scripts (NOT appending)

Question

I want to add text to a file using shell-scripts. The solution I know is if you want to insert your text into a newline (appending):

echo "mytext" >> myfile.txt

what I want to have a continuous text at the end of process.

for ((I=0; I <72 ; I++))
  do
    echo "mytext$I, " >> myfile.txt   ????? 
done

I want something like:

mytext0, mytext1, mytext2, mytext3, ...., mytext71

but instead I get:

mytext0, 
mytext1, 
....
mytext71

Please provide sample input and output: "a continuous text at the end of the process" is so ambiguous to be meaningless... — jasonwryan, Aug 27 '15 at 08:24
echo outputs a newline each pass of the loop. do want echo -n ? — Skaperen, Aug 27 '15 at 08:56

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 27 '15 at 08:44

1

You just need to make sure you don't append a newline to the end of the output: just replace echo with either echo -n or printf. I'd recommend the latter as it's more portable.

answered Aug 27 '15 at 08:44

l0b0

51,350

You will get the laste element as mytext71,. – cuonglm Aug 27 '15 at 08:48
I mentioned I want something continuous like this: mytext0, mytext1, mytext2, mytext3, ...., mytext71 – H'H Aug 27 '15 at 09:00

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

1

In bash (and also shell which support brace expansion), you can do:

printf '%s\n' "$(printf 'mytext%s\n\n' {1..71})" | paste -sd', ' - >out

In POSIX shell:

printf '%s\n' "$(
n=1
while [ "$n" -le 71 ]; do
  printf 'mytext%s\n\n' "$n"
  n=$((n+1))
done
)" | paste -sd', ' - >out

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

Community

1

answered Aug 27 '15 at 08:54

cuonglm

153,898

so where is myfile.txt in this way? – H'H Aug 27 '15 at 09:01
@H'H: Added it, replace out with whatever name you want. – cuonglm Aug 27 '15 at 09:03

Insert text to file using bash scripts (NOT appending)

2 Answers2