Printf example in bash does not create a newline

Posted by WolfHumble on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by WolfHumble
Published on 2010-04-20T15:43:25Z Indexed on 2010/04/20 15:53 UTC
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bash

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printf

Working with printf in a bash script, adding no spaces after "\n" does not create a newline, whereas adding a space creates a newline, e. g.:

No space after "\n"

NewLine=`printf "\n"`
echo -e "Firstline${NewLine}Lastline"

Result:

FirstlineLastline

Space after "\n "

NewLine=`printf "\n "`
echo -e "Firstline${NewLine}Lastline"

Result:

Firstline
 Lastline

Question: Why doesn't 1. create the following result:

Firstline 
Lastline

I know that this specific issue could have been worked around using other techniques, but I want to focus on why 1. does not work.

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