sed insert line with spaces to a specific line

Question

I have a line with spaces in the start for example \" Hello world\". I want to insert this line to a specific line in a file. for example insert \" hello world\" to the next f

Answer 1

You can escape the space character, for example to add 2 spaces:

sed -i "${line} i \ \ ${text}" $file

Or you can do it in the definition of your text variable:

text="\ \ hello world"

Answer 2

$ a="  some string  "
$ echo -e "hello\nworld"
hello
world
$ echo -e "hello\nworld" | sed "/world/ s/.*/${a}.\n&/" 
hello
  some string  .
world

The . was added in the substitution above to demonstrate that the trailing whitepsaces are preserved. Use sed "/world/ s/.*/${a}\n&/" instead.

Answer 3

It can be done by splitting the expression like this:

sed -i $file -e '2i\' -e "     $text"

This is a GNU extension for easier scripting.

Answer 4

You only need one \ to input multiple blanks like this

sed -i "${line} i \    ${text}" $file