What does # mean in front of an array name in bash script? - arrays

I read such a line:
arrayA=$((${#arrayB[#]}+${#arrayC[#]}));
What does it do? Especially what's the meaning of # in front of array name?

${#a[#]} expands to the number of elements in the array a. See the Shell Parameter Expansion section of the reference manual.
Thanks #gniourf_gniourf, but what is this line does in overall? I tried to run the rhs in my terminal with two arrays, and it seems to try to execute the sum result as a command? This doesn't make sense to me...
$((...)) is the arithmetic context.
${#arrayB[#]} and ${#arrayC[#]} expand to the number of elements in arrayB and arrayC respectively.
Hence $((${#arrayB[#]}+${#arrayC[#]})) expands to the sum of the number of elements in arrayB and arrayC. Check it with echo $((${#arrayB[#]}+${#arrayC[#]})).
Hence your snippet will assign to the variable arrayA the sum of the number of elements in arrayB and arrayC.
Demo:
$ arrayB=( one two three )
$ arrayC=( alpha beta gamma delta )
$ echo "${#arrayB[#]}"
3
$ echo "${#arrayC[#]}"
4
$ echo "$(( ${#arrayB[#]} + ${#arrayC[#]} ))"
7
$ arrayA=$(( ${#arrayB[#]} + ${#arrayC[#]} ))
$ echo "$arrayA"
7

The line:
arrayA=$((${#arrayB[#]}+${#arrayC[#]}));
Reads: set the value of variable arrayA as the summed length of arrayB and arrayC
$(()) is the arithmetic expansion syntax in which you have the sum + of the two array lengths ${#array[#]}

Related

How can I assign a range using array length?

This is probably a silly question, more out of curiosity. I have an array in bash:
array=(name1.ext name2.ext name3.ext)
I want to strip off the extension from each element. I was trying to do this by looping over each element, but I was having trouble setting the range of the loop (see below):
for i in 'echo {0..'expr ${#array[#]} - 1'}'; do
newarray[$i]+=$(echo "${array[$i]:0:5}");
done
Please note ' = "back-tick" within the code-block because I wasn't sure how to escape it.
I'm not able to just use a set range (e.g. seq 0 3), because it changes based on the folder, so I wanted to be able to use the length of the array minus 1. I was able to work around this using:
for (( i=0; i<${#array[#]}; i++ )); do
newarray[$i]+=$(echo "${array[$i]:0:5}"); done
But I thought there should be some way to do it with the "array length minus 1" method above and wondered how I was thinking about this incorrectly. Any pointers are appreciated.
Thanks!
Dan
You can apply various parameter expansion operators to each element of an array directly, without needing an explicit loop.
$ array=(name1.ext name2.ext name3.ext)
$ printf '%s\n' "${array[#]%.ext}"
name1
name2
name3
$ newarray=( "${array[#]%.ext}" )
In general, though, there is nearly never any need to generate a range numbers to iterate over. Just use the C-style for loop:
for ((i=0; i< ${#array[#]}; i++ )); do
newarray[$i]="${array[i]%.ext}"
done
With Bash, you could simply loop over your array elements with ${files[#]}:
#!/bin/bash
files=(name1.ext name2.ext name3.ext)
for f in ${files[#]}; do
echo "${f%.*}"
done
Also substring removal ${f%.*} is a better choice if you have extensions of different lengths.
You can use the seq command
for i in `seq 0 $(( ${#array[#]} - 1 ))`
do
···
done
or the bash brace expansion (but in this case you need eval):
for i in `eval echo {0..$(( ${#array[#]} - 1 ))}`
do
···
done
But there is another better (it works even in sparse arrays): let's make bash give us the array indexes:
for i in ${!array[#]}
do
···
done

How to modify 2d array in shell script

I have the following sample code for my shell script:
#!/bin/bash
x[1,1]=0
x[2,1]=1
echo "x[1,1]=${x[1,1]}"
echo "x[2,1]=${x[2,1]}"
for i in {1..2}; do
x[$i,1]=${i}
echo "loop$i x[$i,1]=${i}"
done
echo "x[1,1]=${x[1,1]}"
echo "x[2,1]=${x[2,1]}"
and I am expecting for x[1,1] to have the value of 1 and x[2,2] to have the value of 2.
But when I run the script the result is:
$ ./test3.sh
x[1,1]=1
x[2,1]=1
loop1 x[1,1]=1
loop2 x[2,1]=2
x[1,1]=2
x[2,1]=2
I expect x[1,1] to retain the value of 1 but it happens to be 2 now. Is there something wrong with my script?
Bash does not have 2-D arrays. The best you can do is emulate them with associative arrays.
Add the following line to the beginning of your script:
declare -A x
This makes x into an associative array. When that is done, the script produces the output that you expect:
$ bash script
x[1,1]=0
x[2,1]=1
loop1 x[1,1]=1
loop2 x[2,1]=2
x[1,1]=1
x[2,1]=2
Bash indexed arrays
Unless declare -A is used, a bash array is just an indexed array. Let's define y as an indexed array:
$ y=()
Now, let's assign two values:
$ y[2,3]=1
$ y[22,3]=2
Now, let's use declare -p to find out what the contents of the array really are:
$ declare -p y
declare -a y='([3]="2")'
As you can see, there is only y[3]. The reason is that the index in an indexed array is subject to arithmetic expansion and, when given a list of comma-separated values, arithmetic expansion returns just the last one.
In other words, as far as bash is concerned, assignments to y[2,3] and y[22,3] are both just assignments to y[3]. The second assignment overwrites the first.
We can see this directly if we echo the results of arithmetic expansion:
$ echo $((3))
3
$ echo $((2,3))
3
$ echo $((22,3))
3
When given a list of comma-separated values, arithmetic expansion returns the last one. This is true even if the comma-separated list is a long one:
$ echo $((1+2,3*4,5,6,7,8))
8
It is always the last value which is returned.
Bash associative arrays
Let's examine what happens with associative arrays. Let's define z as an associative array and assign some values to it:
$ declare -A z
$ z[1,2]=1
$ z[3,4]=2
$ z["Jim Bob"]=3
Now, let's see what was stored in z:
$ declare -p z
declare -A z='([3,4]="2" ["Jim Bob"]="3" [1,2]="1" )'
This seems to be what you need.

change array value while looping in bash

The code
SourceFolder[0]=""
SourceFolder[1]="inbound2"
SourceFolder[2]="inbound3"
for i in "${!SourceFolder[#]}"
do
if [ -z "${SourceFolder[$i]}"]; then
${SourceFolder[$i]} = "TEST"
fi
done
${SourceFolder[$i]} = "TEST" - doesn't work
it says
=: command not found
How to change value in current loop index in an array?
Because of the first space = is not interpreted as an assignment. There is a full explanation on So.
Btw ${SourceFolder[$i]} evaluate the array element, which is not what you want to do. For instance for the first one it is the empty string.
Replaces with SourceFolder[$i]=
You must change indexnumber in the your array:
ARRAYNAME[indexnumber]=value
ok, you have array is:
array=(one two three)
you can add count to your script for initialize and change element for array indexnumber, example:
#!/bin/bash
count=0
array=(one two three)
for i in ${array[#]}
do
echo "$i"
array[$count]="$i-indexnumber-is-$count"
count=$((count + 1))
echo $count
done
echo ${array[*]}
Result:
bash test-arr.sh
one
1
two
2
three
3
one-indexnumber-is-0 two-indexnumber-is-1 three-indexnumber-is-2

Bash: iteration through array names

I am trying to write code to break up a large array into many different small arrays. Eventually the array I would be passed is one of unknown size, this is just my test subject. I have gotten this far:
#!/bin/bash
num=(10 3 12 3 4 4)
inArray=${#num[#]}
numArrays=$(($inArray/2))
remain=$(($inArray%2))
echo $numArrays
echo $remain
nun=0
if test $remain -gt $nun; then
numArrays=$(($numArrays+1))
fi
array=(1 2)
j=0
for ((i=0;i<$numArrays;i++, j=j+2)); do
array=("${num[#]:$j:2}")
echo "The array says: ${array[#]}"
echo "The size? ${#array[#]}"
done
What I am really having a problem with is : I would like to make the variable 'array' be able to change names slightly every time, so each array is kept and has a unique name after the loop. I have tried making the name array_$i but that returns:
[Stephanie#~]$ ./tmp.sh
3
0
./tmp.sh: line 16: syntax error near unexpected token `"${num[#]:$j:2}"'
./tmp.sh: line 16: ` array_$i=("${num[#]:$j:2}")'
[Stephanie#RDT00069 ~]$ ./tmp.sh
3
0
./tmp.sh: line 16: syntax error near unexpected token `$i'
./tmp.sh: line 16: ` array($i)=("${num[#]:$j:2}")'
Does anyone have any advice?
Thanks
I don't think you can really avoid eval here, but you might be able to do it safely if you're careful. Here's my approach:
for name in "${!array_*}"; do # Get all names starting with array_
i="${name#array_*}" # Get the part after array_
if [[ $i != *[^0-9]* ]]; then # Check that it's a number.
printf '%s is not a valid subarray name\n' "$name"
else
# Create a variable named "statement" that contains code you want to eval.
printf -v statement 'cur_array=( "${%s[#]}" )' "$name"
eval "$statement"
# Do interesting things with $cur_array
fi
done
Before this, when you're just creating the array, you know what $name should be, so just use the printf -v part.
To make it even safer, you could save all the allowed array names in another array and check that $name is a member.
With simple variables, you can use the declare keyword to make indirect assignments:
v=foo
declare $v=5
echo $foo # Prints 5
This doesn't extend to arrays in the obvious (to me, anyway) sense:
i=2
# This produces a syntax error
declare -a array_$i=("${num[#]:$j:2}")
Instead, you can declare an empty array
declare -a array_$i
or assign items one at a time:
declare -a array_$i[0]=item1 array_$i[1]=item2
Here's an example of using a for-loop to copy, say, the 3rd
and 4th letters of a big array into a smaller one. We use
i as the dynamic part of the name of the smaller array, and
j as the index into that array.
letters=(a b c d e f)
i=1
j=0
for letter in "${letters[#]:2:2}"; do
# E.g., i=0 and j=1 would result in
# declare -a array_0[1]=c
declare -a array_$i[$j]=$letter
let j+=1
done
done
echo ${array_1[#]}; # c d
${foo[#]:x:y} gives us elements x, x+1, ..., x+y-1 from foo, and
You can wrap the whole thing inside another for-loop to accomplish the goal of splitting letters into 3 smaller arrays:
# We'll create array_0, array_1, and array_2
for i in 0 1 2; do
# Just like our subset above, but start at position i*2 instead of
# a constant.
for letter in "${letters[#]:$((i*2)):2}"; do
declare -a array_$i[$j]=$letter
done
done
Once you manage to populate your three arrays, how do you access them without eval? Bash has syntax for indirect access:
v=foo
foo=5
echo ${!v} # echoes 5!
The exclamation point says to use the word that follows as a variable whose value should be used as the name of the parameter to expand. Knowing that, you might think you could do the following, but you'd be wrong.
i=1
v=array_$i # array_1
echo ${!v[0]} # array_1[0] is c, so prints c, right? Wrong.
In the above, bash tries to find a variable called v[0] and expand it to get the name of a parameter to expand. We actually have to treat our array plus its index as a single name:
i=1
v=array_$i[0]
echo ${!v} # This does print c
This should work, but this is not a good solution, another language may be better bash does not support multi dimensional arrays
eval array_$i='('"${num[#]:$j:2}"')'
And then, for example
eval 'echo "${array_'$i'[0]}"'

Arrays in unix shell?

How do I create an array in unix shell scripting?
The following code creates and prints an array of strings in shell:
#!/bin/bash
array=("A" "B" "ElementC" "ElementE")
for element in "${array[#]}"
do
echo "$element"
done
echo
echo "Number of elements: ${#array[#]}"
echo
echo "${array[#]}"
Result:
A
B
ElementC
ElementE
Number of elements: 4
A B ElementC ElementE
in bash, you create array like this
arr=(one two three)
to call the elements
$ echo "${arr[0]}"
one
$ echo "${arr[2]}"
three
to ask for user input, you can use read
read -p "Enter your choice: " choice
Bourne shell doesn't support arrays. However, there are two ways to handle the issue.
Use positional shell parameters $1, $2, etc.:
$ set one two three
$ echo $*
one two three
$ echo $#
3
$ echo $2
two
Use variable evaluations:
$ n=1 ; eval a$n="one"
$ n=2 ; eval a$n="two"
$ n=3 ; eval a$n="three"
$ n=2
$ eval echo \$a$n
two
#!/bin/bash
# define a array, space to separate every item
foo=(foo1 foo2)
# access
echo "${foo[1]}"
# add or changes
foo[0]=bar
foo[2]=cat
foo[1000]=also_OK
You can read the ABS "Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide"
The Bourne shell and C shell don't have arrays, IIRC.
In addition to what others have said, in Bash you can get the number of elements in an array as follows:
elements=${#arrayname[#]}
and do slice-style operations:
arrayname=(apple banana cherry)
echo ${arrayname[#]:1} # yields "banana cherry"
echo ${arrayname[#]: -1} # yields "cherry"
echo ${arrayname[${#arrayname[#]}-1]} # yields "cherry"
echo ${arrayname[#]:0:2} # yields "apple banana"
echo ${arrayname[#]:1:1} # yields "banana"
Try this :
echo "Find the Largest Number and Smallest Number of a given number"
echo "---------------------------------------------------------------------------------"
echo "Enter the number"
read n
i=0
while [ $n -gt 0 ] #For Seperating digits and Stored into array "x"
do
x[$i]=`expr $n % 10`
n=`expr $n / 10`
i=`expr $i + 1`
done
echo "Array values ${x[#]}" # For displaying array elements
len=${#x[*]} # it returns the array length
for (( i=0; i<len; i++ )) # For Sorting array elements using Bubble sort
do
for (( j=i+1; j<len; j++ ))
do
if [ `echo "${x[$i]} > ${x[$j]}"|bc` ]
then
t=${x[$i]}
t=${x[$i]}
x[$i]=${x[$j]}
x[$j]=$t
fi
done
done
echo "Array values ${x[*]}" # Displaying of Sorted Array
for (( i=len-1; i>=0; i-- )) # Form largest number
do
a=`echo $a \* 10 + ${x[$i]}|bc`
done
echo "Largest Number is : $a"
l=$a #Largest number
s=0
while [ $a -gt 0 ] # Reversing of number, We get Smallest number
do
r=`expr $a % 10`
s=`echo "$s * 10 + $r"|bc`
a=`expr $a / 10`
done
echo "Smallest Number is : $s" #Smallest Number
echo "Difference between Largest number and Smallest number"
echo "=========================================="
Diff=`expr $l - $s`
echo "Result is : $Diff"
echo "If you try it, We can get it"
Your question asks about "unix shell scripting", but is tagged bash. Those are two different answers.
The POSIX specification for shells does not have anything to say about arrays, as the original Bourne shell did not support them. Even today, on FreeBSD, Ubuntu Linux, and many other systems, /bin/sh does not have array support. So if you want your script to work in different Bourne-compatible shells, you shouldn't use them. Alternatively, if you are assuming a specific shell, then be sure to put its full name in the shebang line, e.g. #!/usr/bin/env bash.
If you are using bash or zsh, or a modern version of ksh, you can create an array like this:
myArray=(first "second element" 3rd)
and access elements like this
$ echo "${myArray[1]}" # for bash/ksh; for zsh, echo $myArray[2]
second element
You can get all the elements via "${myArray[#]}". You can use the slice notation ${array[#]:start:length} to restrict the portion of the array referenced, e.g. "${myArray[#]:1}" to leave off the first element.
The length of the array is ${#myArray[#]}. You can get a new array containing all the indexes from an existing array with "${!myArray[#]}".
Older versions of ksh before ksh93 also had arrays, but not the parenthesis-based notation, nor did they support slicing. You could create an array like this, though:
set -A myArray -- first "second element" 3rd
You can try of the following type :
#!/bin/bash
declare -a arr
i=0
j=0
for dir in $(find /home/rmajeti/programs -type d)
do
arr[i]=$dir
i=$((i+1))
done
while [ $j -lt $i ]
do
echo ${arr[$j]}
j=$((j+1))
done
An array can be loaded in twoways.
set -A TEST_ARRAY alpha beta gamma
or
X=0 # Initialize counter to zero.
-- Load the array with the strings alpha, beta, and gamma
for ELEMENT in alpha gamma beta
do
TEST_ARRAY[$X]=$ELEMENT
((X = X + 1))
done
Also, I think below information may help:
The shell supports one-dimensional arrays. The maximum number of array
elements is 1,024. When an array is defined, it is automatically
dimensioned to 1,024 elements. A one-dimensional array contains a
sequence of array elements, which are like the boxcars connected
together on a train track.
In case you want to access the array:
echo ${MY_ARRAY[2] # Show the third array element
gamma
echo ${MY_ARRAY[*] # Show all array elements
- alpha beta gamma
echo ${MY_ARRAY[#] # Show all array elements
- alpha beta gamma
echo ${#MY_ARRAY[*]} # Show the total number of array elements
- 3
echo ${#MY_ARRAY[#]} # Show the total number of array elements
- 3
echo ${MY_ARRAY} # Show array element 0 (the first element)
- alpha
If you want a key value store with support for spaces use the -A parameter:
declare -A programCollection
programCollection["xwininfo"]="to aquire information about the target window."
for program in ${!programCollection[#]}
do
echo "The program ${program} is used ${programCollection[${program}]}"
done
http://linux.die.net/man/1/bash "Associative arrays are created using declare -A name. "
There are multiple ways to create an array in shell.
ARR[0]="ABC"
ARR[1]="BCD"
echo ${ARR[*]}
${ARR[*]} prints all elements in the array.
Second way is:
ARR=("A" "B" "C" "D" 5 7 "J")
echo ${#ARR[#]}
echo ${ARR[0]}
${#ARR[#]} is used to count length of the array.
To read the values from keybord and insert element into array
# enter 0 when exit the insert element
echo "Enter the numbers"
read n
while [ $n -ne 0 ]
do
x[$i]=`expr $n`
read n
let i++
done
#display the all array elements
echo "Array values ${x[#]}"
echo "Array values ${x[*]}"
# To find the array length
length=${#x[*]}
echo $length
A Simple way :
arr=("sharlock" "bomkesh" "feluda" ) ##declare array
len=${#arr[*]} #determine length of array
# iterate with for loop
for (( i=0; i<len; i++ ))
do
echo ${arr[$i]}
done
In ksh you do it:
set -A array element1 element2 elementn
# view the first element
echo ${array[0]}
# Amount elements (You have to substitute 1)
echo ${#array[*]}
# show last element
echo ${array[ $(( ${#array[*]} - 1 )) ]}

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