Home Bash scripting Bash Scripting – Indexed Array Explained With Examples

Bash Scripting – Indexed Array Explained With Examples

By Karthick
Published: Last Updated on 24.9K views

Arrays are a type of data structure that is used to store values of a certain type. You can also think array as a variable but a variable can only store one value where an array can store multiple values within it. The concept of the array is not only bound to bash. Any programming language you work with will have arrays in it but with implementation differences.

Bash supports two types of arrays:

  • Indexed Array
  • Associative Array

Indexed arrays are a type of array where elements (values) are stored and assigned with an integer number starting from 0 to N. The elements inside the array are referenced using the index number. You will get to know more about this in the upcoming article. The main focus of this article is only indexed arrays.

How to initialize indexed array in Bash

The first step towards working with the array is to create it. The term create, define, initialize an array will be used interchangeably, but points to the same meaning - creating the array.

To create an array, you should use brackets and place the array elements (values) inside the brackets.

$ arr1=( one 2 three 4 )

Important points to note:

  • Bash arrays can store elements of a different data type. In some programming languages, you can store values in an array of the same type only.
  • There are no limitations on how many elements can be stored in the array. It depends on the availability of your system memory.

You can also use declare command with the -a flag to create an indexed array.

$ declare -a arr1
$ arr1=( one 2 three 4 )

Or,

$ declare -a arr1=( one 2 three 4 )

How to add or view elements of an array

You can either create an array with values in it like as shown in the previous section or just create an empty array and add values later. Below is how you create an empty array.

$ locations=()

Each element in an array has an associated index value starting from 0 to N. You have to add new elements to an array using the index position.

$ locations[0]="Chennai"
$ locations[1]="Mumbai"

Here is the graphical illustration of adding elements to an array.

Pictorial representation - Adding element to an array
Pictorial representation - Adding element to an array

To view the elements in an array, you can use either of the following syntaxes.

$ echo ${locations[@]}
$ echo ${locations[*]}
Initialize & print array
Initialize and print array

To know the difference between @ and * and how it works with array, refer the section "Loop over array elements" in our Bash For Loop guide.

If you try to list the array elements without using @ or * only the first element in the array will be printed.

$ echo ${locations}
Array without * or @ operators
Array without * or @ operators

You can access a particular element directly using its index position.

$ echo ${locations[1]}
Print array at particular index position
Print array at particular index position

Index value of an array

In the previous section, I have shown how to add elements in an array using the index position. When you add arrays using index positions, you can skip and add elements to the different index positions.

The array locations have two elements in positions 0 and 1. Now I can skip index 2 and add to the different index positions.

$ locations[5]="Delhi"
Add new element
Add new element

From the above image, you can see I have added a new element to the array at the index position 5.

Pictorial representation - Add new element to an array
Pictorial representation - Add new element to an array

If you want to print the index values of elements, prefix the array with the "!" symbol like below:

$ echo ${!locations[@]}

This will only print the index values Instead of printing the elements.

Print index position
Print index position

To print both index and elements, use the following snippet.

for val in ${!locations[@]}
do
   echo "index = ${val} , value = ${locations[$val]}"
done
Print index and elements
Print index and elements

Append values to an Array

You can add new elements to an array without using their index values and this will append elements to the array.

locations=( Chennai Mumbai Delhi )
locations+=( Bangalore )
locations+=( Hyderabad )
$ echo ${locations[@]}
$ echo ${!locations[@]}
Append elements to array
Append elements to array

Find length of an array

You can get how many elements are there in an array by prefixing the # symbol before the array.

$ echo ${#locations[@]}
Length of an array
Length of an array

Using the same # symbol, you can also find if the array is empty or not.

if [[ ${#locations[@]} -ne 0 ]]; then
    echo "Array is Not empty"
else
    echo "Array is Empty"
fi
Find if an array is empty or not
Find if an array is empty or not

Remove elements from an array

To remove an element from the array, you can use the unset command. Take a look at the below example where using the unset command the element from the index(2) is removed.

$ echo ${locations[@]}
$ unset locations[2]
$ echo ${locations[@]}
Remove elements from an array
Remove elements from an array

Remove an array

To remove the array, you can use the same unset command.

$ unset locations
$ echo ${locations[@]}
Remove array
Remove array

Empty an array

Sometimes you may wish to remove all the elements from the array and keep the array empty. In that case, you can simply recreate the array.

$ echo ${locations[@]}
Chennai Mumbai Delhi Hyderabad Bangalore
$ locations=()
$ echo ${locations[@]}
Make an array empty
Make an array empty

Store command output as array

You can run any commands and try to store the output in an array. The command should be enclosed with brackets for the output to be stored as an array.

$ path_list=( $(echo $PATH | tr ":" "\n") )
$ echo ${path_list[@]}
Store command output as array
Store command output as array

Array slicing

Slicing gives you the flexibility to pull out certain elements of the array based on their index position.

Following is the syntax for slicing:

${locations[@]:index:length}

If you wish to grab all the elements but from a particular starting index position, you can do it in the following way by using the index alone.

$ echo ${locations[@]:index} # syntax
$ echo ${locations[@]:2}
Slicing - index position
Slicing - index position

In the above example, the array will be printed starting from Index position 2 and till the last element. If you specify the length along with the index, then it will use the following formula to slice the array.

From index to index+length-1 (inclusive) # Formula
$ echo ${locations[@]:1:3}
Slicing - Index and length
Slicing - Index and length

If you skip the index and give length alone then it will slice using the following formula.

From Index 0 to length-1 (inclusive)
$ echo ${locations[@]::4}
Slicing - Length alone
Slicing - Length alone

Conclusion

In this article, I have walked you through the bash indexed array. Arrays are very important when you start writing complex bash scripts. They gives you the ability to store, retrieve and manipulate data of different type easily. Unlike programming languages like python, there are no built-in ways to use arrays easily to perform some complex tasks but still achievable. 

In our next guide, we will discuss about Associative array in detail.

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2 comments

Gustavo Feijo October 6, 2021 - 7:02 pm

Thanks man! I just love bash programming. This is a huge powerful language. I’ve being away from IT few years now, but I’m coming back and this kind of article reminds me how much I love this f…ing bash. It rocks!
Thanks again!

Reply
sk October 6, 2021 - 8:13 pm

You’re welcome. We have also published a few more guides on Bash scripting. Please take a look here -> https://ostechnix.com/category/bash/bash-scripting/

Reply

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