Last updated: The Bash array variables come in two flavors, the one-dimensional indexed arrays, and the associative arrays. The indexed arrays are sometimes called lists and the associative arrays are sometimes called dictionaries or hash tables. The support for Bash Arrays simplifies heavily how you can write your shell scripts to support more complex logic or to safely preserve field separation.
This guide covers the standard bash array operations and how to declare (set), append, iterate over (loop), check (test), access (get), and delete (unset) a value in an indexed bash array and an associative bash array. The detailed examples include how to sort and shuffle arrays.
👉 Many fixes and improvements have been made with Bash version 5, read more details with the post What’s New in GNU Bash 5?
Difference between Bash Indexed Arrays and Associative Arrays
First and foremost, you need to differentiate the two types of arrays that can be used in bash. An indexed array is an array in which the keys (indexes) are ordered integers. You can think about it as an ordered list of items. Then, an associative array, a.k.a
hash table, is an array in which the keys are represented by arbitrary strings.
How to declare a Bash Array?
Arrays in Bash are one-dimensional array variables. The declare shell builtin is used to declare array variables and give them attributes using the -a and -A options. Note that there is no upper limit (maximum) on the size (length) of a Bash array and the values in an Indexed Array and an Associative Array can be any strings or numbers, with the null string being a valid value.
👉 Remember that the null string is a zero-length string, which is an empty string. This is not to be confused with the bash null command which has a completely different meaning and purpose.
Bash Indexed Array (ordered lists)
You can create an Indexed Array on the fly in Bash using compound assignment or by using the builtin command declare. The += operator allows you to append a value to an indexed Bash array.
[me@linux ~]$ myIndexedArray=(one two three)
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myIndexedArray[*]}
one two three
[me@linux ~]$ myIndexedArray[5]='five'
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myIndexedArray[*]}
one two three five
[me@linux ~]$ myIndexedArray[4]='four'
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myIndexedArray[*]}
one two three four five
[me@linux ~]$ myIndexedArray+=('six')
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myIndexedArray[*]}
one two three four five six
With the declare built-in command and the lowercase “-a” option, you would simply do the following:
[me@linux ~]$ declare -a mySecondIndexedArray
[me@linux ~]$ mySecondIndexedArray[0]='zero'
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${mySecondIndexedArray[*]}
zero
Bash Associative Array (dictionaries, hash table, or key/value pair)
You cannot create an associative array on the fly in Bash. You can only use the declare built-in command with the uppercase “-A” option. The += operator allows you to append one or multiple key/value to an associative Bash array.
[me@linux ~]$ declare -A myAssociativeArray
[me@linux ~]$ myAssociativeArray[a]=123
[me@linux ~]$ myAssociativeArray[b]=456
[me@linux ~]$ myAssociativeArray+=([c]=789 [d]=012)
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myAssociativeArray[*]}
012 789 456 123
⚠️ Do not confuse
-a(lowercase) with-A(uppercase). It would silently fail. Indeed, declaring an Indexed array will accept subscript but will ignore it and treat the rest of your declaration as an Indexed Array, not an Associative Array.
👉 Make sure to properly follow the array syntax and enclose the subscript in square brackets
[]to avoid the " Bash Error: must use subscript when assigning associative array".
When to use double quotes with Bash Arrays?
A great benefit of using Bash Arrays is to preserve field separation. Though, to keep that behavior, you must use double quotes as necessary. In absence of quoting, Bash will split the input into a list of words based on the $IFS value which by default contain spaces and tabs.
[me@linux ~]$ myArray=("1st item" "2nd item" "3rd item" "4th item")
[me@linux ~]$ printf 'Word -> %s\n' ${myArray[@]} # word splitting based on $IFS
Word -> 1st
Word -> item
Word -> 2nd
Word -> item
Word -> 3rd
Word -> item
Word -> 4th
Word -> item
[me@linux ~]$ printf 'Word -> %s\n' "${myArray[*]}" # use the full array as one word
Word -> 1st item 2nd item 3rd item 4th item
[me@linux ~]$ printf 'Word -> %s\n' "${myArray[@]}" # use arrays entries
Word -> 1st item
Word -> 2nd item
Word -> 3rd item
Word -> 4th item
Array Operations
How to iterate over a Bash Array? (loop)
As discussed above, you can access all the values of a Bash array using the * (asterisk) notation. Though, to iterate through all the array values you should use the @ (at) notation instead.
The difference between the two will arise when you try to loop over such an array using quotes. The * notation will return all the elements of the array as a single word result while the @ notation will return a value for each element of the Bash array as a separate word. This becomes clear when performing a
for loop on such a variable.
[me@linux ~]$ myDemoArray=(1 2 3 4 5)
# Using '*'
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myDemoArray[*]}
1 2 3 4 5
# Using '@'
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myDemoArray[@]}
1 2 3 4 5
# For Loop Exampe with '*', will echo only once all the values
[me@linux ~]$ myDemoArray=(1 2 3 4 5)
[me@linux ~]$ for value in "${myDemoArray[*]}"; do echo "$value"; done
1 2 3 4 5
# For Loop Example with '@', will echo individually each values
[me@linux ~]$ myDemoArray=(1 2 3 4 5)
[me@linux ~]$ for value in "${myDemoArray[@]}"; do echo "$value"; done
1
2
3
4
5
How to get the Key/Value pair of a Bash Array? (Obtain Keys or Indices)
When looping over a Bash array it’s often useful to access the keys of the array separately of the values. This can be done by using the ! (bang) notation.
# Print Indexed Array Keys
[me@linux ~]$ for keys in "${!myDemoArray[@]}"; do echo "$keys"; done
0
1
2
3
4
# Print Associative Array Values
[me@linux ~]$ myAssociativeArray=([a]=123 [b]=456)
[me@linux ~]$ for value in "${myAssociativeArray[@]}"; do echo "$value"; done
456
123
# Print Associative Array Keys
[me@linux ~]$ myAssociativeArray=([a]=123 [b]=456)
[me@linux ~]$ for keys in "${!myAssociativeArray[@]}"; do echo "$keys"; done
b
a
# Iterate over key and value of an Associative Array
[me@linux ~]$ myAssociativeArray=([a]=123 [b]=456)
[me@linux ~]$ for key in "${!myAssociativeArray[@]}"
> do
> echo -n "key : $key, "
> echo "value: ${myAssociativeArray[$key]}"
> done
key : b, value: 456
key : a, value: 123
How to get a Bash Array size? (Array length)
Another useful aspect of manipulating Bash Arrays is to be able to get the total count of all the elements in an array. You can get the length (i.e. size) of an Array variable with the # (hashtag) notation.
[me@linux ~]$ myArray=(a b c d)
[me@linux ~]$ echo "myArray contain ${#myArray[*]} elements"
myArray contain 4 elements
[me@linux ~]$ myAssociativeArray=([a]=123 [b]=456)
[me@linux ~]$ echo "myAssociativeArray contain ${#myAssociativeArray[*]} elements"
myAssociativeArray contain 2 elements
How to remove a key from a Bash Array or delete the full array? (delete)
The unset bash builtin command is used to unset (delete or remove) any values and attributes from a shell variable or function. This means that you can simply use it to delete a Bash array in full or only remove part of it by specifying the key. unset take the variable name as an argument, so don’t forget to remove the $ (dollar) sign in front of the variable name of your array. See the complete example below.
[me@linux ~]$ declare -A myArray=([one]=un [two]=deux [three]=trois)
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myArray[*]}
deux trois un
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myArray[one]}
un
[me@linux ~]$ unset myArray[one]
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myArray[*]}
deux trois
[me@linux ~]$ unset myArray
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myArray[*]}
Detailed Examples & FAQ
How to shuffle the elements of an Array in a shell script?
There are two reasonable options to shuffle the elements of a bash array in a shell script. First, you can either use the external command-line tool shuf that comes with the GNU coreutils, or sort -R in older coreutils versions. Second, you can use a native bash implementation with only shell builtin and a randomization function. Both methods presented below assume the use of an indexed array, it will not work with associative arrays.
The shuf command line generates random permutations from a file or the standard input. By using the -e option, shuf would treat each argument as a separate input line. Do not forget to use the double-quote otherwise elements with whitespaces will be split. Once the array is shuffled we can reassign its new value to the same variable.
[me@linux ~]$ myArray=("1st item" "2nd item" "3rd item")
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myArray[@]}
1st item 2nd item 3rd item
# CORRECT: Uses double-quote
[me@linux ~]$ shuf -e "${myArray[@]}"
2nd item
1st item
3rd item
# WRONG: Missing double-quote
[me@linux ~]$ shuf -e ${myArray[@]}
2nd
item
item
1st
3rd
item
[me@linux ~]$ myArray=( $(shuf -e "${myArray[@]}") )
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myArray[@]}
2nd item 1st item 3rd item
The second option to shuffle the elements of a bash array is to implement an unbiased algorithm like the
Fisher-Yates shuffle. The challenge to implement such a solution is that you may need to few bash tricks to work around some limitations. For example, a
bash function return value is limited to number values between 0 and 255, nor can you safely use indirection in bash. This example will implement a rand function and a shuffle function. Both functions use local and global variables to pass values around. If you need to shuffle an array larger than 32768 entries or your array is not a dense indexed array, then use the first method above using shuf.
We want to ensure that every permutation is equally likely when shuffling the array. The first function rand is used to generates a random number instead of using $((RANDOM % i)) with a
modulo operator in bash arithmetic which would produce a biased number. We compensate this by using a range of values that is a multiple of the $RANDOM modulus. The $RANDOM number range between 0 and 32767. Since we still rely on this number, it will limit our max random number generator to 32768 values. We use a
bash while loop with the
bash null command to iterate over a series of $RANDOM numbers until we get one below the max value. We use a
bash if statement to ensure that we don’t end up in an infinite loop in cases where max value is zero which would happen if we provide a number larger than 32768 to rand.
The shuffle function uses a
bash for loop to permute they entries in the array based on the unbiased random number we generated with the rand function.
# generate a random number from 0 to ($1-1)
# GLOBALS: _RANDOM.
rand() {
local max=$((32768 / $1 * $1))
if (( $max > 0 )); then
while (( (_RANDOM=$RANDOM) >= max )); do :; done
_RANDOM=$(( _RANDOM % $1 ))
else
return 1
fi
}
# shuffle an array using the rand function
# GLOBALS: _array, _RANDOM
shuffle() {
local i tmp size
size=${#_array[*]}
for ((i=size-1; i>0; i--)); do
if ! rand $((i+1)); then exit 1; fi
tmp=${_array[i]} _array[i]=${_array[$_RANDOM]} _array[$_RANDOM]=$tmp
done
}
[me@linux ~]$ myArray=("1st item" "2nd item" "3rd item")
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myArray[@]}
1st item 2nd item 3rd item
[me@linux ~]$ _array=("${myArray[@]}"); shuffle ; myArray=("${_array[@]}")
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myArray[@]}
2nd item 1st item 3rd item
How to sort the elements of an Array in a shell script?
You can easily implement a Bubble sort algorithm with a bash function to sort an indexed array (list). This sorting algorithm is called a comparison sort. It iterates over each item of an array using a bash for loop and until loop to compare adjacent items with a bash if statement and swap them if they are in the wrong order. The algorithm iterates until all the items are sorted.
The example below is a shell script implementation of a bubble sort algorithm on a list of dates. It uses the date command to do
date comparison in bash and sort the dates in descending order.
#!/usr/bin/bash
# Example script using bubble sort algorithm in bash
swapDates() {
local tmp=${dates[$1]}
dates[$1]=${dates[$2]}
dates[$2]=$tmp
}
bubblesort() {
local size=${#dates[@]} # Size of sortable items
echo -e "\nArray size: $size"
n=$size
until (( n <= 0 )); do
newn=0
echo -e "\nIteration: $((size-n))"
for ((i=0; i < n; i++)); do
if ((
( ${#dates[i+1]} > 0 ) && \
( $(date -d "${dates[i+1]}" +%s) > $(date -d "${dates[i]}" +%s) )
)); then
echo swap "${dates[i+1]}" with "${dates[i]}"
swapDates $((i+1)) $i
newn=$i
fi
done
n=$newn
done
echo -e "Array sorted\n"
}
dates=('Feb 13' 'Jan 17' 'Apr 12' 'Mar 24' 'Apr 6' 'Jan 20')
echo "Unsorted Array: ${dates[@]}"
bubblesort
echo "Sorted Array: ${dates[@]}"
# Example Output
[me@linux ~]$ ./dates-bubble-sort
Unsorted Array: Feb 13 Jan 17 Apr 12 Mar 24 Apr 6 Jan 20
Array size: 6
Iteration: 0
swap Apr 12 with Jan 17
swap Mar 24 with Jan 17
swap Apr 6 with Jan 17
swap Jan 20 with Jan 17
Iteration: 2
swap Apr 12 with Feb 13
swap Mar 24 with Feb 13
swap Apr 6 with Feb 13
Iteration: 4
swap Apr 6 with Mar 24
Iteration: 5
Array sorted
Sorted Array: Apr 12 Apr 6 Mar 24 Feb 13 Jan 20 Jan 17
How to get a subset of an Array?
The shell parameter expansions works on arrays which means that you can use the substring Expansion ${string:<start>:<count>} notation to get a subset of an array in bash. Example: ${myArray[@]:2:3}.
The notation can be use with optional <start> and <count> parameters. The ${myArray[@]} notation is equivalent to ${myArray[@]:0}.
${myArray[@]:<start>} | Get the subset of entries from <start> to the end of the array |
${myArray[@]:<start>:<count>} | Get the subset of <count> entries starting from <start> entry |
${myArray[@]::<count>} | Get the subset of <count> entries from the beginning of the array |
[me@linux ~]$ myArray=("1st item" "2nd item" "3rd item" "4th item")
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myArray[@]:2:3}
3rd item 4th item
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myArray[@]:1}
2nd item 3rd item 4th item
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myArray[@]::2}
1st item 2nd item
How to check if a Bash Array is empty?
You can check if an array is empty by checking the length (or size) of the array with the ${#array[@]} syntax and use a
bash if statement as necessary.
[me@linux ~]$ myArray=();
[me@linux ~]$ if ! (( ${#myArray[@]} > 0 )); then echo "myArray is empty"; fi
myArray is empty
[me@linux ~]$ myArray=("1st item" "2nd item" "3rd item")
[me@linux ~]$ (( ${#myArray[@]} > 0 )) && echo "myArray is NOT empty and contain ${#myArray[@]} elements"
myArray is NOT empty and contain 3 elements
How to check if a Bash Array contains a value?
There is no in array operator in bash to check if an array contains a value. Instead, to check if a bash array contains a value you will need to test the values in the array by using a
bash conditional expression with the binary operator =~. The string to the right of the operator is considered a POSIX
extended regular expression and matched accordingly. Be careful, this will not look for an exact match as it uses a shell regex.
[me@linux ~]$ myArray=(a b c d)
[me@linux ~]$ [[ ${myArray[*]} =~ 'a' ]] && echo 'yes' || echo 'no'
yes
[me@linux ~]$ [[ ${myArray[*]} =~ 'e' ]] && echo 'yes' || echo 'no'
no
# Return True even for partial match
[me@linux ~]$ myArray=(a1 b1 c1 d1 ee)
[me@linux ~]$ [[ ${myArray[*]} =~ 'a' ]] && echo 'yes' || echo 'no'
yes
[me@linux ~]$ [[ ${myArray[*]} =~ 'a1' ]] && echo 'yes' || echo 'no'
yes
[me@linux ~]$ [[ ${myArray[*]} =~ 'e' ]] && echo 'yes' || echo 'no'
yes
[me@linux ~]$ [[ ${myArray[*]} =~ 'ee' ]] && echo 'yes' || echo 'no'
yes
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myAssociativeArray[*]}
456 123
[me@linux ~]$ [[ ${myAssociativeArray[*]} =~ 3 ]] && echo 'yes' || echo 'no'
yes
[me@linux ~]$ [[ ${myAssociativeArray[*]} =~ 123 ]] && echo 'yes' || echo 'no'
yes
[me@linux ~]$ [[ ${myAssociativeArray[*]} =~ 1234 ]] && echo 'yes' || echo 'no'
no
In order to look for an exact match, your regex pattern needs to add extra space before and after the value like (^|[[:space:]])"VALUE"($|[[:space:]]).
[me@linux ~]$ [[ ${myAssociativeArray[*]} =~ (^|[[:space:]])"12"($|[[:space:]]) ]] && echo 'yes' || echo 'no'
no
[me@linux ~]$ [[ ${myAssociativeArray[*]} =~ (^|[[:space:]])"123"($|[[:space:]]) ]] && echo 'yes' || echo 'no'
yes
With the Bash Associative Arrays, you can extend the solution to test values with [[ -z "${myArray[$value]}" ]].
# delete previously set declaration of myArray and
# prevent the error `bash: myArray: cannot convert indexed to associative array`
[me@linux ~]$ unset myArray
[me@linux ~]$ declare -A myArray=([one]=un [two]=deux [three]=trois)
[me@linux ~]$ echo ${myArray[*]}
deux trois un
[me@linux ~]$ for value in one two three four
> do
> echo -n "$value is "
> [[ -z "${myArray[$value]}" ]] && echo -n '*not* '
> echo "a member of ( ${!myArray[*]} )"
> done
one is a member of ( two three one )
two is a member of ( two three one )
three is a member of ( two three one )
four is *not* a member of ( two three one )
How to store each line of a file into an indexed array?
The easiest and safest way to read a file into a bash array is to use the mapfile builtin which read lines from the standard input. When no array variable name is provided to the mapfile command, the input will be stored into the $MAPFILE variable. Note that the mapfile command will split by default on newlines character but will preserve it in the array values, you can remove the trailing delimiter using the -t option and change the delimiter using the -d option.
[me@linux ~]$ mapfile MYFILE < example.txt
[me@linux ~]$ printf '%s' "${MYFILE[@]}"
line 1
line 2
line 3
[me@linux ~]$ mapfile < example.txt # Use default MAPFILE array
[me@linux ~]$ printf '%s' "${MAPFILE[@]}"
line 1
line 2
line 3
