1

I want to print in the Terminal something like this:

lollipop
lollipo
lollip
lolli
loll
lol
lo
l

However if i do -n twice i get a newline and then it just prints "-n" if i use echo. How can i avoid this from happening and make this mess not print when i run X:

lollipop
lollipo-nlollip-nlolli-nloll-nlol-nlo-nl

X:

echo lollipop -n lollipo -n lollip -n lolli -n loll -n lol -n lo -n l
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10
  • 1
    Use printf instead: printf "lollipop\nlollipo\nlollip\nlolli\nloll\nlol\nlo\nl"
    – Eddie Dunn
    Dec 8, 2015 at 21:46
  • It would be clearer if you could add spaces, like this: printf "\\\lollipop\nlollipo\nlollip\nlolli\nloll\nlol\nlo\nl\\\"
    – Star OS
    Dec 8, 2015 at 21:47
  • 2
    Why echo and not something better?
    – muru
    Dec 8, 2015 at 21:48
  • People are downvoting this for what? The fact it uses echo? My last post had around 15 upvotes and the accepted answer 30 upvotes and it mostly used echo.
    – Star OS
    Dec 8, 2015 at 21:50
  • Side note: -n removes the trailing newline, it doesn't add it. And the main problem is even if it added it, you pass a single string to echo.
    – kos
    Dec 8, 2015 at 21:52

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
8

You need to use the -e "enable interpretation of backslash escapes" option with the \n to force newlines

echo -e "lollipop\nlollipo\nlollip\nlolli\nloll\nlol\nlo\nl"
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0
2

Use printf instead:

printf "lollipop\nlollipo\nlollip\nlolli\nloll\nlol\nlo\nl"

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1
  • "using echo" I'll change everything if i see this works.
    – Star OS
    Dec 8, 2015 at 21:46
2

Prefer high level and portable tools for special formatting instead of such tools as echo. Here I am using AWK to print the ever decreasing substring that was provided with here-string . Note that I could have used printf "%s" lollipop | awk . . . as well for better portability

$ awk '{for(i=length($1);i>=1;i--) print substr($1,1,i)}' <<< "lollipop"       
lollipop
lollipo
lollip
lolli
loll
lol
lo
l

AWK's print function always prints a single line, similar to java's System.out.println. This could be replaced with print "%s\n",substr($1,1,i)

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1
  • Hey, it works too.
    – Star OS
    Dec 8, 2015 at 22:00

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