echo prints too many spaces

Question

I have code with two variables in echo. I don't know why it prints spaces before $NEXT even though I have just one space in code.

NEXT=$(find "${DIR}" -type f -name "*.$ext" | sed "s/.*\/\.//g" | sed "s/.*\///g" |
sed -n '/.*\..*/p' | wc -l)
echo "Files .$ext: $NEXT"

Files .tar:        1

If you want help, you need to supply all of the relevant code. — Lynn Crumbling, Mar 20 '16 at 01:08
NEXT=$(find "${DIR}" -type f -name "*.$ext" | sed "s/.*\/\.//g" | sed "s/.*\///g" | sed -n '/.*\..*/p' | wc -l) — user3463055, Mar 20 '16 at 01:36
Your comment specifying how `$NEXT` is set needs to be in the question. — Keith Thompson, Mar 20 '16 at 03:51

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 20 '16 at 03:49

Your find expression is not doing what you think it is:

NEXT=$(find "${DIR}" -type f -name "*.$ext" | sed "s/.*\/\.//g" | sed "s/.*\///g" |
sed -n '/.*\..*/p' | wc -l)

When you pipe to wc -l you are left with a Number. The format of the number will depend on your distributions default compile options for wc. While generally when information is piped or redirected to wc the value returned should be without any leading whitespace (but there is no guarantee that your install of wc will work that way). All you can do it test and see what results, e.g.

ls "$HOME" | wc -l

If whitespace is returned before the value -- you have found your problem.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 20 '16 at 01:17

If the last line is the output, then it seems it is an output of something else than displayed code. When your output looks weird, try putting single quotes around each variable:

echo "  Average file size .'$ext': '$AEXT'"

That way, you will know, if the spaces (or tabs) are coming from the variables themselves or from the script.

echo prints too many spaces

2 Answers2