How to perform the reverse of `xargs`?

Question

I have a list of numbers that I want to reverse.

They are already sorted.

35 53 102 342

I want this:

342 102 53 35

So I thought of this:

echo $NUMBERS | ??? | tac | xargs

What's the ???

It should turn a space separated list into a line separated list.

I'd like to avoid having to set IFS.

Maybe I can use bash arrays, but I was hoping there's a command whose purpose in life is to do the opposite of xargs (maybe xargs is more than a one trick pony as well!!)

Answer 1

You can use printf for that. For example:

$ printf "%s\n" 35 53 102 342
35
53
102
342
$ printf "%s\n" 35 53 102 342|tac
342
102
53
35

Answer 2

Another answer (easy to remember but not as fast as the printf method):

$ xargs -n 1 echo

e.g.

$ NUMBERS="35 53 102 342"
$ echo $NUMBERS | xargs -n 1 echo | tac | xargs
342 102 53 35

Here is the xargs manual for -n option:

-n number
         Set the maximum number of arguments taken from standard input for 
         each invocation of utility.  An invocation of utility will use less 
         than number standard input arguments if the number of bytes accumu-
         lated (see the -s option) exceeds the specified size or there are 
         fewer than number arguments remaining for the last invocation of 
         utility.  The current default value for number is 5000.