How Do I Use Array Variables in BASH?

4 Feb 2017 • 1 min read

Examples of associative arrays in Bash.

First, declare the variable as an associative array:

$ declare -A aa

Assign some data:

$ aa["one"]=1
$ aa["two"]=2

Determine how many elements are in the array:

$ echo ${#aa[*]}
2

Get the keys:

$ echo ${!aa[@]}
one two

Note the difference between the @ and * subscripts is subtle. * expands the array with the IFS character between each word. @ expands to just words.

To add another item and see what the actual array looks like enter:

$ aa["three"]=3
$ typeset -A
declare -A aa='([one]="1" [two]="2" [three]="3" )'

To remove elements use unset:

$ unset aa["three"]
$ typeset -A | grep aa=
declare -A aa='([one]="1" [two]="2" )'

Joe Bologna