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1

I was trying to execute new line using echo and tried following two commands:

  1. First command:

    echo $'Hello World\nThis is a new line'

    Respose:

    Hello World
This is a new line

  2. Second command:

    echo $"Hello World\nThis is a new line"

    Response:

    Hello World\nThis is a new line

My question is what's the difference between string wrapped with $' ' vs string wrapped with $" " in bash echo?

share|improve this question
    
Helpful note : Double quote is also known as weak quoting and Single quote is also known as strong quoting. – Rafaf Tahsin 3 hours ago
1  
Yes, but "weak quote" and 'strong quote' are different from $'C String' and $"I18N String". – DopeGhoti 3 hours ago
    
You the real MVP. :D >>> @DopeGhoti – Rafaf Tahsin 3 hours ago
    
I do what I can (: – DopeGhoti 3 hours ago
up vote 5 down vote accepted

As explained here, the syntax $'string' specifies a C-style string which includes magic escaped characters, such as \n for a newline. $"string" is for I18N expansion, which has no such magic escapes.

Note that these are distinct from the more common "string" (weak quoting) and 'string' (strong quoting).

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up vote 5 down vote

The $ in the beginning of the string in :

echo $'Hello World\nThis is a new line'

causes escape sequences to be interpreted.

Bash reference manual [ says ]

Words of the form $'string' are treated specially. The word expands to string, with backslash-escaped characters replaced as specified by the ANSI C standard. ..
..
The expanded result is single-quoted, as if the dollar sign had not been present.

But 

echo $"Hello World\nThis is a new line"

is completely different. This [ article ] on locale specific translation says :

A double-quoted string preceded by a dollar sign (‘$’) will cause the string to be translated according to the current locale. If the current locale is C or POSIX, the dollar sign is ignored. If the string is translated and replaced, the replacement is double-quoted.

Note: IIRC both $'string' and $"string" as bashisms [ needs validation ]. Not only do people from other shells look at them curiosity but also they debate on whether this could be avoided for script portability.

share|improve this answer
    
ksh93 also understands $'...'. – Kusalananda 3 hours ago

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