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From: jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: Getting csh to preserve trailing blanks from backquoted commands.
Message-ID: <1251@tardis.Tymnet.COM>
Date: 28 Sep 90 19:53:40 GMT
References: <1243@romana.Tymnet.COM>
Reply-To: jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith)
Organization: BT Tymnet, San Jose, CA
Lines: 15

In article <1243@romana.Tymnet.COM> I ask:
>How do you pad a csh variable to specific length using trailing blanks?

Answer: Use double quotes when setting the variable, and when referencing it.

Part of it was a blind spot in my thinking.  I had convinced myself that
	set who="`expr substr '$USER        ' 1 8`"
would not work since the $USER was inside single quotes.  That was wrong.
Due to the surrounding double quotes, "'" is treated as an apostrophe; just
another printing character at the time variable substitution takes place.
-- 
Joe Smith (408)922-6220 | SMTP: jms@tardis.tymnet.com or jms@gemini.tymnet.com
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