Using a variable containing spaces as a single argument

Question

Think you have a variable that contains a string of text with spaces inbetween and you want to use that as input arguments for another script. How would you go about passing the variable content without worrying about the space chars?

The following doesn't work:

VAR1=hello\ world
#... do something else
./a_script.sh $VAR1

kev · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-10 10:34:36Z

3

Use double quotes:

VAR1=hello\ world
#... do something else
./a_script.sh "$VAR1"

answered Jul 10, 2012 at 10:34

kev

163k49 gold badges286 silver badges282 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Using a variable containing spaces as a single argument

1 Answer 1

Comments

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Comments

Linked

Related