Technology Tales

Using associative arrays in scripting for BASH version 4 and above

29th April 2023

Associated arrays get called different names in different computing languages: dictionaries, hash tables and so on. What is held in common is that they essentially are lists of key value pairs. In the case of BASH, you need at least version 4 to make use of this facility. In Linux Mint, I get 5.1.16, but macOS users apparently are still on BASH 3, so this post may not help them.

To declare an associative array in a later version of BASH, the following command gets issued:

declare -A hashtable

The code to add a key value pair then takes the following form:

hashtable[key1]=value1

Several values can be added to an empty array like this:

hashtable=( ["key1"]="value1" ["key2"]="value2" )

Declaration and instantiation of an associative can be done in the same line as follows:

declare -A hashtable=( ["key1"]="value1 ["key2"]="value2")

Handily, it is possible to loop through the entries in an associative array. It is possible to do this for keys and for values, once you expand out the appropriate list. The following expands a list of values:

"${hashtable[@]}"

Expanding a list of values needs something like this:

"${!hashtable[@]}"

Looping through a list of values needs something like the following:

for val in "${hashtable[@]}"; do echo "$val"; done;

The above has been placed on a single line with semicolon delimiters for brevity, but this can be put on several lines with no semicolons for added clarity as long as correct indentation is followed. It is also possible to similarly loop through a list of keys:

for key in "${!hashtable[@]}"; do echo "key: $key, value ${hashtable[$key]}"; done;

For the example associative array declared earlier, the last line produces this output, resolving the value using the supplied key:

key: key2, value value2
key: key1, value value1

All of this found a use in a script that I created for adding new Markdown files to a Hugo instance because there was more than one shortcode that I wished to apply due to my having more than one content directory in use.