How to pass argument with spaces to a shell script function?

shell-script arguments

124

Solution 1

You should just quote the second argument.

myfunc(){
        echo "$1"
        echo "$2"
        echo "$3"
}

myfunc hi "hello guys" bye

Solution 2

It is the same as calling anything (a shell script, a C program, a python program, …) from a shell

If calling from any Unix shell, and the parameter has spaces, then you need to quote it.

sh my-shell-script hi "hello guys" bye

You can also use single quotes, these are more powerful. They stop the shell from interpreting anything ($, !, \, *, ", etc, except ')

sh my-shell-script hi 'hello guys' bye

You should also quote every variable used within the function/script.

Note that in your example the arguments are falling apart before they get to the function (as they are passed to the script).

#!/bin/sh
my_procedure{
   echo "$1"
   echo "$2"
   echo "$3"
}
my_procedure("$@")

There is no way to do it automatically, in the script, as there is no way for the script to know which spaces are which (which words are together).

124

Klam

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Klam almost 2 years
I'm writing a form and I seem to be missing my params[:id] when it gets to the Content Controller.

This is my routes.rb:
```
match '/site/content/myaction/:id', :to => 'contents#myaction'
```
The form is "myaction" which is in a partial _edit.html.erb:
```
<%= form_tag :action => 'myaction' do %>
    <input id="old_id" name="myaction_name" type="text" />
    <%= submit_tag 'Submit' %>
<% end %>
```
before I submit the form i'm at: /site/content/edit/:id/ after i hit submit and i'm at the error page i'm at: /site/content/myaction/

It gets to myaction in content controller but i get the error that id is null... and here are the params:
```
{"utf8"=>"✓",
 "old_id"=>"2",
 "commit"=>"Submit",
 "id"=>nil}
```
What I am missing? it seems that maybe it's not picking my route? how else is it re-directing then...

Any suggestion is much appreciated.
- AnkitG over 11 years
  
  have you defined myaction as 'POST' in routes?
- Klam over 11 years
  
  I just tried it... i commented out the match in my rules and replaced it with: post "site/content/myaction/:id", :to => 'contents#myaction'. Same result
- Stéphane Chazelas almost 10 years
  
  @Gnouc. Not in dash. In yash yes. Though zsh also accepts ksh's function definition syntax, function() echo x; function will work in zsh. So the only shells where that is a problem are ksh, bash and yash.
- cuonglm almost 10 years
  
  @StéphaneChazelas: Oh, I retry and it works in zsh, but dash doesn't.
Nathan B about 6 years

And if the parameter has " in it? We need to encode it?
Bruno over 5 years

Escape it. \"
Sam over 3 years

What if 'hello guys' is stored in a variable?
ctrl-alt-delor over 3 years

@Jacob "You should also quote every variable used within the function/script." (extracted from answer).