shell variable interpolation?

[Joshua McKinney]

On Mon, Nov 18, 2002 at 11:48:27AM +1100, Steven Hanley wrote:
> All
> 
> Okay so I am wondering if there is a better way to interpolate variables
> within a string in shell than I have worked out here.
> (seeing how we have some sick disturbed individuals who do things with sh
> that it was probably never meant to do (hi Michael) I thought I might ask.
> 
> I have 
> 
> ====
> #! /bin/sh
> 
> multi_apply () {
>    local string=$1
>    local list=$2
>    for item in $list ; do 
>       line=`eval echo "$string"`      echo $line
>    done
> }
> 
> a1="one long \$item argument"
> a2="and another one"
> 
> multi_apply "$a1" "$a2"
> ====
> 
> which when I run it outputs
> 
> one long and argument
> one long another argument
> one long one argument
> 
> the idea is to pass in and a string in which the items should be inserted.
> This seems to work fine, I wonder however if there is a better/more
> efficient/faster than this.
> 
> Ideas/Suggestions?
> 
> 	See You
> 	    Steve
> 
> -- 
> sjh at wibble.net http://wibble.net/~sjh
> You are subtle as a window pane standing in my view
> but I will wait for it to rain so that I can see you
>    Anticipate - Ani

Try:
for item in $a2 ; do
	echo "${a1/placeholder/$item}"
done
-- 
If I can't fix it, it aint broke.