Replace \n(new line) with space in bash

Question

I am reading some sql queries into a variable from db and it contains new line character (\n). I want to replace \n (new line) with space. I tried solutions provided on internet but was unsuccessful to achieve what I want. Here is what tried :

strr="my\nname\nis\nxxxx"; nw_strr=`echo $strr | tr '\n' ' '`; echo $nw_strr;

my desired output is "my name is xxxx" but what I am getting is "my\nname\nis\nxxxx". I also tried other solution provided at internet, but no luck:

nw_strr=`echo $strr | sed ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n/ /g'`;

Am I doing something wong?

For starters, as written $strr doesn't contain newlines, it contains literal backslash-N sequences. Try strr=$'my\nname\nis\nxxxx' to get proper newlines. — John Kugelman
– John Kugelman, Commented Aug 29, 2016 at 5:08
See also: Unix & Linux: Using sed to convert newlines into spaces — Gabriel Staples
– Gabriel Staples, Commented Aug 31, 2023 at 3:36

Cyrus · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-13 06:53:00Z

37

With bash:

Replace all newlines with a space:

nw_strr="${strr//$'\n'/ }"

Replace all strings \n with a space:

nw_strr="${strr//\\n/ }"

edited Aug 13, 2019 at 6:53

answered Aug 29, 2016 at 5:08

Cyrus

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4 Comments

Charley Over a year ago

Works for me, but as John Kugelman mentions in his comment above, this must be tested with $strr containing an actual newline. For example strr=$'my\nname\nis\nxxxx'.

Prometheus Over a year ago

Second one works for me. I guess all \n come as string while reading from mysql.

markling Jan 7 at 10:30

This seems faulty. The second works for me if I don't put quotes around the substitution command. If I keep the quotes, the newlines remain. The first works for me regardless of whether I use quotes. Can you explain what the first is doing? And what difference it makes compared to the other?

Cyrus Jan 7 at 22:02

@markling: Please show output of echo "$BASH_VERSION".

zabop · Accepted Answer · 2024-03-15 10:52:14Z

If you want to keep using pipes, you can do:

string_with_spaces=$(echo "$string_with_newlines" | tr '\n' ' ')

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