To get jot to produce 2-character numbers with leading zeros, use the -w option, which allows you to use C-like printf format conversions. For example, jot -w%02i 100 0 returns 100 numbers starting with 0, with leading zeros (00-99). You can also use -w to get constant strings in with your variable data, for example, jot -w/tmp/raj%i 5 returns /tmp/raj1 /tmp/raj2 /tmp/raj3 /tmp/raj4 /tmp/raj5 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- If you don't want each word separated by a new line, use the -s option. jot -s " " 10 returns 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. If you want them all scrunched together, you can say jot -s "" 10 and get 12345678910. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To get letters, use the -c option. jot -c -s "" 26 a returns abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz or jot -c -s "" 26 A returns ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ