Question

Is there any command in shell scripting which is similar to “list” in tcl? I want to write a list of elements to a file (each in separate line) .But, if the element matches a particular pattern then element next to it and the element itself should be printed in the same line. Is there any command in shell script for doing this?

example: my string is like ” execute the command run abcd.v”
I want to write each word in separate lines of a file but if the word is “run” then abcd.v and run must be printed in the same line. So, the output should be like,

execute
the
command
run abcd.v

How to do this in shell scripting?

Answer 1

line="execute the command run abcd.v"
for word in $line    # the variable needs to be unquoted to get "word splitting"
do
    case $word in
        run|open|etc) sep=" " ;;  
        *) sep=$'\n' ;;
    esac
    printf "%s%s" $word "$sep"
done

See http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bashref.html#Word-Splitting