bash - How to specify a multi-line shell variable?

Question

I have written a query:

function print_ui_hosts
{
local sql = "select ........."
print_sql "$ sql"
}

local sql - a very long string. Query is not formatted. How can I split a string into multiple lines?

Answer 1

simply insert new line where necessary

sql="
SELECT c1, c2
from Table1, Table2
where ...
"

shell will be looking for the closing quotation mark