How to modify grep output: get each result in each line

Question

I'm using grep to search a pattern through a file contained in a var

Code here:

result=`grep "$pattern" $file`
echo $result

Result: A) somewords B)somelines C)somenumbers

print result on 1 line. I would like to have results one for line a

Like:

A) somewords
B) somelines
C) somenumbers

How can I?

Thanks

Answer 1

Just quote your $result variable and the newlines will be preserved:

result=$(grep "$pattern" $file)
echo "$result"

The reason this works is that when you enclose something in double quotes in bash, everything inside those quotes is treated as a single word. This means that it won't be subject to word splitting. See also: http://mywiki.wooledge.org/WordSplitting

Effectively when you use $result, it gets expanded to this (because the newlines are treated as delimiters):

echo A) somewords B) somelines C) somenumbers

When you use "$result" and avoid the word splitting, it gets expanded to this:

echo "A) somewords
B) somelines
C) somenumbers"

Additional note: using $(...) instead of backticks improves readability and also is more portable.