How do I use variables in single quoted strings?

Question

I am just wondering how I can echo a variable inside single quotes (I am using single quotes as the string has quotation marks in it).

     echo \'test text          


        

Answer 1

You can do it this way:

$ counter=1 eval echo `echo 'test text \
   "here_is_some_test_text_$counter" "output"' | \
   sed -s 's/\"/\\\\"/g'` > file

cat file
test text "here_is_some_test_text_1" "output"

Explanation: Eval command will process a string as command, so after the correct amount of escaping it will produce the desired result.

It says execute the following string as command:

'echo test text \"here_is_some_test_text_$counter\" \"output\"'

Command again in one line:

counter=1 eval echo `echo 'test text "here_is_some_test_text_$counter" "output"' | sed -s 's/\"/\\\\"/g'` > file