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?

Mcguire

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. – Cissiee

See also: Unix & Linux: Using sed to convert newlines into spaces – Acoustics

Answer 1

With bash:

Replace all newlines with a space:

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

Replace all strings \n with a space:

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

Despite

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'. – Mondragon

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

Answer 2

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

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

Source.

Jere