adb shell input text with space

Question

How to send text with spaces like "some text" using adb shell input text ?

Found following solution

adb shell input text "some%stext" is working fine. But any easy way to replace space with %s?

Example:

$ adb shell input text "some text"
Error: Invalid arguments for command: text
Usage: input [<source>] <command> [<arg>...]

The sources are: 
      keyboard
      mouse
      joystick
      touchnavigation
      touchpad
      trackball
      dpad
      stylus
      gamepad
      touchscreen

The commands and default sources are:
      text <string> (Default: touchscreen)
      keyevent [--longpress] <key code number or name> ... (Default: keyboard)
      tap <x> <y> (Default: touchscreen)
      swipe <x1> <y1> <x2> <y2> [duration(ms)] (Default: touchscreen)
      press (Default: trackball)
      roll <dx> <dy> (Default: trackball)

score 23 · Accepted Answer · edited May 29 '18 at 02:35

23

You can do it with \<space>, like this:

adb shell input text "some\ text"

edited May 29 '18 at 02:35

Stephen Rauch

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answered May 29 '18 at 02:16

KS Ravikumar

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Works for me. adb 1.0.36. Android phone Pixel 2 from G. – Roy Aug 07 '19 at 00:10

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 16 '18 at 00:09

8

With gnu-linux sed (or others) installed (most linux machines come with it preinstalled) - you could use sed to replace spaces with %s.

adb shell input text $(echo "some text with spaces" | sed 's/ /\%s/g')

the %-sign has to be escaped with \.

edited Mar 16 '18 at 00:09

cde

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answered Jul 26 '17 at 14:48

kai-dj

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Sed is also available in most busy box implementations found on android or added after rooting. As $() is interpreted locally since you are using `adb shell input`, instead of inside of the android system (aka `adb shell`) you are using your system's sed. The stripped down minimal toolbox does not have sed. – cde Mar 15 '18 at 23:38
the Q asks to use adb shell input, not for text manipulation inside adb shell ^^ – kai-dj Mar 16 '18 at 00:10
What encoding type is this ? What about ':' can be useful to pass URLs ? – RzR Mar 17 '19 at 18:20

Ingo · Answer 3 · 2021-05-25T23:03:30.703

2

You can send your text like:

Text = "some text with spaces"

Replace blanks with %s

adb shell input text some%stext%swith%sspaces

edited May 25 '21 at 23:03

answered Dec 06 '17 at 21:10

Ingo

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This does not actually answer op's question. Op knows you need %s, they did not want to manually edit all the spaces. – cde Mar 15 '18 at 23:40
@cde I of course assumed that a string replace function would be used to change blanks to %s – Ingo Feb 23 '21 at 00:36

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 21 '21 at 10:38

1

adb shell "input text 'some text'"

answered Dec 21 '21 at 10:38

Yong

1,529
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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered May 06 '22 at 11:04

The best way replaces special characters with .

 val message = text.replace("|", "\\|")
            .replace("\"", "\\\"")
            .replace("\'", "\\\'")
            .replace("<", "\\<")
            .replace(">", "\\>")
            .replace(";", "\\;")
            .replace("?", "\\?")
            .replace("`", "\\`")
            .replace("&", "\\&")
            .replace("*", "\\*")
            .replace("(", "\\(")
            .replace(")", "\\)")
            .replace("~", "\\~")
            .replace(" ", "\\ ")

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 24 '23 at 07:25

0

Enclose the text in single quote:

adb shell input text 'some text'

answered Aug 24 '23 at 07:25

SuB

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adb shell input text with space

6 Answers6

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