GNU bug report logs - #12482
Feature Request: support for int, octal, and hex types in seq --format

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From: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
To: "Voelker\, Bernhard" <bernhard.voelker <at> siemens-enterprise.com>
Cc: "12482-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org" <12482 <at> debbugs.gnu.org>, Craig Sanders <cas <at> taz.net.au>
Subject: bug#12482: Feature Request: support for int, octal, and hex types in seq --format
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2012 10:19:13 +0200

retitle 12482 RFE: seq: add support for int, octal, hex formats in --format
thanks

Voelker, Bernhard wrote:
> Craig Sanders wrote:
>
>> seq only supports floating point types like f and g in the --format string.
>>
>> Other types, including i,d,o,u,x,X would also be useful.
>>
>> e.g. "seq --format 'prefix%02isuffix' 1 50" to print zero-padded 1-50 with
>> user-specified prefix and suffix strings.
>
> IMO custom format strings for pre- or suffixing are not seq's job.

I agreed, initially.  The texinfo documentation gives examples
of how to convert seq output to hexadecimal (%x) using printf:
    --------------------
       If you want hexadecimal integer output, you can use `printf' to
    perform the conversion:

         $ printf '%x\n' `seq 1048575 1024 1050623`
         fffff
         1003ff
         1007ff

       For very long lists of numbers, use xargs to avoid system
    limitations on the length of an argument list:

         $ seq 1000000 | xargs printf '%x\n' | tail -n 3
         f423e
         f423f
         f4240

       To generate octal output, use the printf `%o' format instead of `%x'.
    --------------------

> The OP wanted a little shell solution to create 50 directories
> with a fixed prefix and suffix, so what about this?
>
>   seq -w 50 | sed 's/^/prefix/; s/$/suffix/' | xargs mkdir

Hmm...
The first time I ran an example like the above, I used -w
without realizing that there was no need, since the printf
format would handle the fixed width part.

(the disadvantage with this approach is that you have to pre-compute
the width and use that number in the printf format, whereas in Bernie's
example, that's done automatically by seq -w.  This suggests that seq's
--equal-width (-w) option *would* be handy in conjunction with the requested
integer format directives.  Then, we'd get the benefit of -w along with
the more direct use of a seq format string. )

    $ seq -w 12 | xargs printf 'a-%02x-b\n'
    a-01-b
    a-02-b
    a-03-b
    a-04-b
    a-05-b
    a-06-b
    a-07-b
    a-printf: 08: value not completely converted
    00-b
    a-printf: 09: value not completely converted
    00-b
    a-0a-b
    a-0b-b
    a-0c-b
    [Exit 123]

That looks like a bug, but printf is actually required to reject
those two input strings.  A leading "0" means octal.

This does what you want:

    $ seq 12 | xargs printf 'a-%02x-b\n'
    a-01-b
    a-02-b
    a-03-b
    a-04-b
    a-05-b
    a-06-b
    a-07-b
    a-08-b
    a-09-b
    a-0a-b
    a-0b-b
    a-0c-b

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