Bash for Loop with Array

Introduction

In this tutorial, we will cover different methods to iterate over arrays using for loops. Arrays are a powerful data structure in Bash, and by leveraging the flexibility of for loops, we can process each element of an array efficiently. Whether you need to perform computations, concatenate strings, or work with nested arrays, this tutorial will provide you with the necessary tools to iterate over arrays effectively in Bash.

Iterating using the array elements

Bash provides a simple for-loop syntax to iterate over an array of items. 

#!/bin/bash

for i in "${array[@]}";
do
       ## Process $i
done

Using this syntax, bash iterates the variable i through the elements of the array one at a time. Within the for loop, we can reference $i to process the i’th element of the array.

Let’s take some examples to understand this:

Array of integers

Let us see how we can iterate over an array to compute the sum of all the numbers.

#!/bin/bash

## Declare an array of integers
declare -a numbers=(1 2 3 4 5)

sum=0

## Iterating using for loop
for num in "${numbers[@]}"
do
       echo "The number is $num"
       sum=$((sum+$num))
done

echo "The sum is $sum"

• We declare an array of integers, numbers.
• for num in "${numbers[@]}" iterates the variable num through the elements of numbers until no more elements are left.
• Within the for loop, we add the individual elements to the sum variable.

It displays each number in the array and calculates their sum, which is 15 in this case.

Array of strings

We can also iterate over an array of strings using this syntax.

Let’s consider an example to concatenate the strings in an array and print the resulting string.

#!/bin/bash

## Declare an array of strings
declare -a stringArr=("Learn" "here" "for" "with" "array")

result=""

for str in "${stringArr[@]}"
do
       result="$result$str "
done

echo "The resulting string is: $result"

• We declare an array of strings, stringArr.
• for str in "${stringArr[@]}" iterates the variable str through the elements of stringArr until no more elements are left.
• Within the for loop, we append the individual stringArr elements at the end of the result string.

The script takes the individual elements of the stringArr array and concatenates them into a single string with spaces between each word.

Iterating using an index variable

If you are coming from the C/C++ world, you might recognize this syntax.

#!/bin/bash

for ((i=0, i<${len}; i++));
do
       ## Process "${arr[$i]}"
done

Let’s take an example to print array variables at each index.

#!/bin/bash

## Declare an array of integers
declare -a numbers=(10 2 7 8 -1)

## Get the length of the array
len=${#numbers[@]}

for ((i=0; i<$len; i++));
do
       echo "Index: $i, number: ${numbers[$i]}"
done

• We declare an array of integers, numbers and store its size in variable len.
• We use double parentheses for-loop syntax using the iteration index i which iterates from 0 till (len-1). Within the for loop, we can use index referencing syntax ${numbers[$i]} to process the individual elements.

Looping through nested arrays 

Bash does not support multi-dimensional arrays like other programming languages. That means it can store values only on a single level. However, you can iterate through two arrays at a time by using nested for loops.

Example:

#!/bin/bash

## Initialize 2 arrays of integers
declare -a numbers1=(3 4 1 -1 -2)
declare -a numbers2=(2 7 8 9 10)

## Get the length of the arrays
len1=${#numbers1[@]}
len2=${#numbers2[@]}

for ((i=0; i<$len1; i++)); do
       for ((j=0; j<$len2; j++)); do
               echo "Element ($((i+1)), $((j+1))): (${numbers1[$i]}, ${numbers2[$j]})"
       done
done

• We declare two arrays, numbers1, and numbers2 and store their sizes in variable len1, len2.
• We use nested for loops to iterate over the elements of the arrays. Effectively, we can access all the combinations (len1 * len2) of the array elements.

We see 25 different pairs of array elements.

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About The Author

Madhur Batra

Madhur Batra is a highly skilled software engineer with 8 years of personal programming experience and 4 years of professional industry experience. He holds a B.E. degree in Information Technology from NSUT, Delhi. Madhur’s expertise lies in C/C++, Python, Golang, Shell scripting, Azure, systems programming, and computer networking. With a strong background in these areas, he is well-equipped to tackle complex software development projects and contribute effectively to any team.

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