in bash how do I separate the escape sequence with the actual number?

Question

for example echo -e "\001\033[5m\033[7m\002${var}\001\033[0m\002" If the var is starting with non number character it works. However, if the var starting with number it fails for example var = 5 then the string is "\001\033[5m\033[7m\0025\001\033[0m\002"` for some reason it won't blink the 5 the screen has a blank line

Answer 1

While there's probably some way to escape a leading digit in ${var} I'd opt to replace echo -e with printf, eg:

printf "\001\033[5m\033[7m\002%s\001\033[0m\002\n" "${var}"

NOTE: added \n on the end to insure we get the same effect as echo