Access bash associate array via variable indirection

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I wish to access an associative array using a variable. The example in the accepted answer to this post is exactly what I want:

$ declare -A FIRST=( [hello]=world [foo]=bar )
$ alias=FIRST
$ echo "${!alias[foo]}"

however this does not work for me when using bash 4.3.48 or bash 3.2.57. It does however work if I don't declare ("declare -A") the array i.e. this works:

$ FIRST[hello]=world
$ FIRST[foo]=bar
$ alias=FIRST
$ echo "${!alias[foo]}"

Is there any problem with not declaring the array?

manpreet 2 years ago

declare -A first=()
first[hello]=world 
first[foo]=bar
alias=first
echo "${!alias[foo]}"     

item=${alias}[foo]
echo "${!item}"
foo

item=${alias}[hello]
echo "${!item}"
world

for item in "${!first[@]}"; do
    iref=${alias}["$item"]
    echo "${!iref}"
done