How to print the elements of an array in Shell script?

Printing Array Elements in Shell Script

In Shell scripting, you can print the elements of an array in various ways. Here are a few common methods:

Using a For Loop

The most straightforward way to print the elements of an array is by using a for loop. This allows you to iterate through each element and print it.

# Declare an array
my_array=(apple banana cherry)

# Print the elements using a for loop
for item in "${my_array[@]}"; do
    echo "$item"
done

This will output:

apple
banana
cherry

The "${my_array[@]}" syntax ensures that the entire array is expanded, including elements with spaces.

Using the echo Command with Array Expansion

You can also use the echo command with array expansion to print the elements.

# Declare an array
my_array=(apple banana cherry)

# Print the elements using echo and array expansion
echo "${my_array[@]}"

This will output:

apple banana cherry

The "${my_array[@]}" syntax tells the shell to expand the entire array as separate arguments to the echo command.

Using a While Loop with Array Index

Another approach is to use a while loop and access the array elements by index.

# Declare an array
my_array=(apple banana cherry)

# Get the length of the array
array_length=${#my_array[@]}

# Print the elements using a while loop
i=0
while [ $i -lt $array_length ]; do
    echo "${my_array[$i]}"
    i=$((i+1))
done

This will output:

apple
banana
cherry

The ${#my_array[@]} syntax retrieves the length of the array, and the my_array[$i] syntax accesses each element by its index.

Printing Arrays with Mermaid Diagrams

To visualize the process of printing array elements in Shell script, we can use a Mermaid diagram:

This diagram shows the high-level steps involved in printing the elements of an array in Shell script:

1. Declare the array
2. Iterate through the array elements
3. Print each element

By using these various techniques, you can effectively print the elements of an array in your Shell scripts.