How to iterate over associative arrays in Bash

Question

Based on an associative array in a Bash script, I need to iterate over it to get the key and value.

#!/bin/bash

declare -A array
array[foo]=bar
array[bar]=foo

I actually don't understand how to get the key while using a for-in loop.

Voyeurism

$ declare -A array=( [foo]=bar [bar]=foo ) # Initialise all at once – Skate

For a small list of key values you might consider this: for i in a,b c_s,d ; do KEY=${i%,*}; VAL=${i#*,}; echo $KEY" XX "$VAL; done – Feeney

Zsh counterpart (spoiler: it's way simpler in Zsh!): superuser.com/questions/737350/… – Merriman

@Feeney I like the simplicity of it, please consider making it a full fledged reply – Cession

Answer 1

The keys are accessed using an exclamation point: ${!array[@]}, the values are accessed using ${array[@]}.

You can iterate over the key/value pairs like this:

for i in "${!array[@]}"
do
  echo "key  : $i"
  echo "value: ${array[$i]}"
done

Note the use of quotes around the variable in the for statement (plus the use of @ instead of *). This is necessary in case any keys include spaces.

The confusion in the other answer comes from the fact that your question includes "foo" and "bar" for both the keys and the values.

Tenderhearted

This is now if assign all keys to an array: array=(${!hash[@]}) – Grain

@Michael-O: You need to quote the parameter expansion to protect keys that may have whitespace: array=("${!hash[@]}") – Tenderhearted

@DennisWilliamson, thanks a lot. I didn't have this on my mind. – Grain

How can we use a function argument number instead of a variable? e.g. for i in "${!$1[@]}" ? – Tandie

@pkaramol: Starting in Bash 4.3 you can use namerefs. Example: declare -A aa; aa['A']=a1; aa['B']=b2; aa['C']=c3; foo () { declare -n assoc=$1; for key in "${!assoc[@]}"; do echo "Key: $key; Value: ${assoc[$key]}"; done; }; foo aa. Please see BashFAQ/006 for some important information. – Tenderhearted

Is there any reference where this can be read, or is this from the man pages? I'm looking at the advanced bash scripting guide, but find it hard to get concise information. It doesn't even mention associative arrays. OK, I found this information in man bash – Aylesbury

Additional official documentation. – Tenderhearted

Answer 2

You can access the keys with ${!array[@]}:

bash-4.0$ echo "${!array[@]}"
foo bar

Then, iterating over the key/value pairs is easy:

for i in "${!array[@]}"
do
  echo "key :" $i
  echo "value:" ${array[$i]}
done

Lussi

I had the "!" - didn't even notice, there was none, sorry.. :) – Voyeurism

echo "${!array[@]}" didn't work on my machine. I'm using mac. – Orthogonal

I noticed this too: it works on my Linux (which has bash version 4.4.20) but not on Mac (which has bash version 3.2.57) ... – Sommersommers

Answer 3

Use this higher order function to prevent the pyramid of doom

foreach(){ 
  arr="$(declare -p $1)" ; eval "declare -A f="${arr#*=}; 
  for i in ${!f[@]}; do $2 "$i" "${f[$i]}"; done
}

example:

$ bar(){ echo "$1 -> $2"; }
$ declare -A foo["flap"]="three four" foo["flop"]="one two"
$ foreach foo bar
flap -> three four
flop -> one two

Buchanan

I'm not sure how this is applicable? Isn't pyramid of doom a purely aesthetic issue and really only applicable in object-oriented languages? – Spy

could you explain it? The foreach function is bit tricky. I don't get it. – Twink

Elegant and concise solution. Functional programming FTW! – Showcase

Answer 4

Welcome to input associative array 2.0!

    clear
    echo "Welcome to input associative array 2.0! (Spaces in keys and values now supported)"
    unset array
    declare -A array
    read -p 'Enter number for array size: ' num
    for (( i=0; i < num; i++ ))
        do
            echo -n "(pair $(( $i+1 )))"
            read -p ' Enter key: ' k
            read -p '         Enter value: ' v
            echo " "
            array[$k]=$v
        done
    echo " "
    echo "The keys are: " ${!array[@]}
    echo "The values are: " ${array[@]}
    echo " "
    echo "Key <-> Value"
    echo "-------------"
    for i in "${!array[@]}"; do echo $i "<->" ${array[$i]}; done
    echo " "
    echo "Thanks for using input associative array 2.0!"

Output:

Welcome to input associative array 2.0! (Spaces in keys and values now supported)
Enter number for array size: 4
(pair 1) Enter key: Key Number 1
         Enter value: Value#1

(pair 2) Enter key: Key Two
         Enter value: Value2

(pair 3) Enter key: Key3
         Enter value: Val3

(pair 4) Enter key: Key4
         Enter value: Value4


The keys are:  Key4 Key3 Key Number 1 Key Two
The values are:  Value4 Val3 Value#1 Value2

Key <-> Value
-------------
Key4 <-> Value4
Key3 <-> Val3
Key Number 1 <-> Value#1
Key Two <-> Value2

Thanks for using input associative array 2.0!

---

Input associative array 1.0

(keys and values that contain spaces are not supported)

    clear
    echo "Welcome to input associative array! (written by mO extraordinaire!)"
    unset array
    declare -A array
    read -p 'Enter number for array size: ' num
    for (( i=0; i < num; i++ ))
        do
            read -p 'Enter key and value separated by a space: ' k v
            array[$k]=$v
        done
    echo " "
    echo "The keys are: " ${!array[@]}
    echo "The values are: " ${array[@]}
    echo " "
    echo "Key <-> Value"
    echo "-------------"
    for i in ${!array[@]}; do echo $i "<->" ${array[$i]}; done
    echo " "
    echo "Thanks for using input associative array!"

Output:

Welcome to input associative array! (written by mO extraordinaire!)
Enter number for array size: 10
Enter key and value separated by a space: a1 10
Enter key and value separated by a space: b2 20
Enter key and value separated by a space: c3 30
Enter key and value separated by a space: d4 40
Enter key and value separated by a space: e5 50
Enter key and value separated by a space: f6 60
Enter key and value separated by a space: g7 70
Enter key and value separated by a space: h8 80
Enter key and value separated by a space: i9 90
Enter key and value separated by a space: j10 100

The keys are:  h8 a1 j10 g7 f6 e5 d4 c3 i9 b2
The values are:  80 10 100 70 60 50 40 30 90 20

Key <-> Value
-------------
h8 <-> 80
a1 <-> 10
j10 <-> 100
g7 <-> 70
f6 <-> 60
e5 <-> 50
d4 <-> 40
c3 <-> 30
i9 <-> 90
b2 <-> 20

Thanks for using input associative array!

Affricative

Answer 5

declare -a arr
echo "-------------------------------------"
echo "Here another example with arr numeric"
echo "-------------------------------------"
arr=( 10 200 3000 40000 500000 60 700 8000 90000 100000 )

echo -e "\n Elements in arr are:\n ${arr[0]} \n ${arr[1]} \n ${arr[2]} \n ${arr[3]} \n ${arr[4]} \n ${arr[5]} \n ${arr[6]} \n ${arr[7]} \n ${arr[8]} \n ${arr[9]}"

echo -e " \n Total elements in arr are : ${arr[*]} \n"

echo -e " \n Total lenght of arr is : ${#arr[@]} \n"

for (( i=0; i<10; i++ ))
do      echo "The value in position $i for arr is [ ${arr[i]} ]"
done

for (( j=0; j<10; j++ ))
do      echo "The length in element $j is ${#arr[j]}"
done

for z in "${!arr[@]}"
do      echo "The key ID is $z"
done
~

Lenrow