Is there a way to itirate through mulitple array using a for loop in BASH

Question

I have 4 arrays:

ARRAY1=( A B C D )
ARRAY2=( E F G )
ARRAY3=( H I J K L M )
ARRAY4=( N )

Some how I would like to get a new array with these elements in it:

FINAL_ARRAY=( ARRAY1 A ARRAY1 B ARRAY1 C ARRAY1 D ARRAY2 E ARRAY2 F ARRAY2 G ARRAY3 H ARRAY3 I ARRAY3 J ARRAY3 K ARRAY3 L ARRAY3 M ARRAY4 N )

Can this be done using some kind of for loop or any other way in BASH?

Thanks.

You really shouldn't be turning variable names (code) into data. Do you make a habit of putting your C variable names in C string values too? — lhunath
– lhunath, Commented Jun 5, 2013 at 0:52

perreal · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-06 03:53:24Z

8

#!/bin/bash
ARRAY1=( A B C D )
ARRAY2=( E F G )
ARRAY3=( H I J K L M )
ARRAY4=( N )
ARRAYNAMES=(ARRAY1 ARRAY2 ARRAY3 ARRAY4)
for an in "${ARRAYNAMES[@]}"; do
    aref="$an[@]"
    for item in "${!aref}"; do
        NEWARRAY=("${NEWARRAY[@]}" "$an" "$item")
    done
done
echo "${NEWARRAY[@]}"

Output:

ARRAY1 A ARRAY1 B ARRAY1 C ARRAY1 D ...

edited Jun 6, 2013 at 3:53

answered Jun 5, 2013 at 0:35

perreal

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3 Comments

Abhinav.K Over a year ago

bang on. That's it. Thanks a ton perreal. I wasted entire day for this. at the end, so simple.

lhunath Over a year ago

You need to at least quote your expansions better. "${NEWARRAY[@]}"

lhunath Over a year ago

@perreal: also $an, $item.

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