How to specify a multi-line shell variable?

Question

I have written a query:

function print_ui_hosts
{
local sql = \"select .........\"
print_sql \"$ sql\"
}

local sql - a very long string. Qu

Answer 1

I would like to give one additional answer, while the other ones will suffice in most cases.

I wanted to write a string over multiple lines, but its contents needed to be single-line.

sql="                       \
SELECT c1, c2               \
from Table1, ${TABLE2}      \
where ...                   \
"

I am sorry if this if a bit off-topic (I did not need this for SQL). However, this post comes up among the first results when searching for multi-line shell variables and an additional answer seemed appropriate.