why empty line is not getting stored in variable

Question

I am using below code

    #! /bin/bash
for host in $(cat ./server.txt)
do 
    echo \"$host\"

done

server.txt contains :

Answer 1

Alternative

s=$(cat -E ./server.txt) 
while [ ${#s} != 0 ]
 do
  echo ${s%%\$*}
  s=${s#*\$}
 done