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Display non-printable characters in Linux

Question & Answer


Question

How can I display non-printable characters (i.e. tabs, linefeeds, carriage returns) from a file in Linux?

Answer

To display non-printable characters (for example, tabs, line feeds, carriage returns, etc.) from a file in Linux, run the following command:

    od -c

For example, if the file contains the following:

======================================================================
select          inv_num,
                  inv_dt,
                  quantity
from           invoices;
======================================================================

od -c will return:

0000000 s e l e c t i n v _ n u m , \
0000020 \\t i n v _ d t , \
\\t q u a n t i
0000040 t y \
f r o m \\t i n v o i c e s
0000060 ; \
\
0000063


In the above output a \\t is indicative of a tab character and a \ is indicative of a newline.

The above can be helpful when trying to understand why an nzload may reject a line for insertion.

[{"Product":{"code":"SSULQD","label":"IBM PureData System"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU053","label":"Cloud & Data Platform"},"Component":null,"Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"1.0.0","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB10","label":"Data and AI"}}]

Historical Number

NZ898874

Document Information

Modified date:
17 October 2019

UID

swg21572026