Single line looping,
declare -a listOfNames=('db_a' 'db_b' 'db_c')
for databaseName in ${listOfNames[@]}; do echo $databaseName; done;
you will get an output like this,
db_a
db_b
db_c
This is similar to user2533809's answer, but each file will be executed as a separate command.
#!/bin/bash
names="RA
RB
R C
RD"
while read -r line; do
echo line: "$line"
done <<< "$names"
You can use the syntax of ${arrayName[@]}
#!/bin/bash
# declare an array called files, that contains 3 values
files=( "/etc/passwd" "/etc/group" "/etc/hosts" )
for i in "${files[@]}"
do
echo "$i"
done
Yes
for Item in Item1 Item2 Item3 Item4 ;
do
echo $Item
done
Output:
Item1
Item2
Item3
Item4
To preserve spaces; single or double quote list entries and double quote list expansions.
for Item in 'Item 1' 'Item 2' 'Item 3' 'Item 4' ;
do
echo "$Item"
done
Output:
Item 1
Item 2
Item 3
Item 4
To make list over multiple lines
for Item in Item1 \
Item2 \
Item3 \
Item4
do
echo $Item
done
Output:
Item1
Item2
Item3
Item4
List=( Item1 Item2 Item3 )
or
List=(
Item1
Item2
Item3
)
Display the list variable:
echo ${List[*]}
Output:
Item1 Item2 Item3
Loop through the list:
for Item in ${List[*]}
do
echo $Item
done
Output:
Item1
Item2
Item3
Create a function to go through a list:
Loop(){
for item in ${*} ;
do
echo ${item}
done
}
Loop ${List[*]}
Using the declare keyword (command) to create the list, which is technically called an array:
declare -a List=(
"element 1"
"element 2"
"element 3"
)
for entry in "${List[@]}"
do
echo "$entry"
done
Output:
element 1
element 2
element 3
Creating an associative array. A dictionary:
declare -A continent
continent[Vietnam]=Asia
continent[France]=Europe
continent[Argentina]=America
for item in "${!continent[@]}";
do
printf "$item is in ${continent[$item]} \n"
done
Output:
Argentina is in America
Vietnam is in Asia
France is in Europe
CSV variables or files in to a list.
Changing the internal field separator from a space, to what ever you want.
In the example below it is changed to a comma
List="Item 1,Item 2,Item 3"
Backup_of_internal_field_separator=$IFS
IFS=,
for item in $List;
do
echo $item
done
IFS=$Backup_of_internal_field_separator
Output:
Item 1
Item 2
Item 3
If need to number them:
`
this is called a back tick. Put the command inside back ticks.
`command`
It is next to the number one on your keyboard and or above the tab key, on a standard American English language keyboard.
List=()
Start_count=0
Step_count=0.1
Stop_count=1
for Item in `seq $Start_count $Step_count $Stop_count`
do
List+=(Item_$Item)
done
for Item in ${List[*]}
do
echo $Item
done
Output is:
Item_0.0
Item_0.1
Item_0.2
Item_0.3
Item_0.4
Item_0.5
Item_0.6
Item_0.7
Item_0.8
Item_0.9
Item_1.0
Becoming more familiar with bashes behavior:
Create a list in a file
cat <<EOF> List_entries.txt
Item1
Item 2
'Item 3'
"Item 4"
Item 7 : *
"Item 6 : * "
"Item 6 : *"
Item 8 : $PWD
'Item 8 : $PWD'
"Item 9 : $PWD"
EOF
Read the list file in to a list and display
List=$(cat List_entries.txt)
echo $List
echo '$List'
echo "$List"
echo ${List[*]}
echo '${List[*]}'
echo "${List[*]}"
echo ${List[@]}
echo '${List[@]}'
echo "${List[@]}"
BASH commandline reference manual: Special meaning of certain characters or words to the shell.
In addition to anubhava's correct answer: If basic syntax for loop is:
for var in "${arr[@]}" ;do ...$var... ;done
there is a special case in bash:
When running a script or a function, arguments passed at command lines will be assigned to $@
array variable, you can access by $1
, $2
, $3
, and so on.
This can be populated (for test) by
set -- arg1 arg2 arg3 ...
A loop over this array could be written simply:
for item ;do
echo "This is item: $item."
done
Note that the reserved work in
is not present and no array name too!
Sample:
set -- arg1 arg2 arg3 ...
for item ;do
echo "This is item: $item."
done
This is item: arg1.
This is item: arg2.
This is item: arg3.
This is item: ....
Note that this is same than
for item in "$@";do
echo "This is item: $item."
done
#!/bin/bash
for item ;do
printf "Doing something with '%s'.\n" "$item"
done
Save this in a script myscript.sh
, chmod +x myscript.sh
, then
./myscript.sh arg1 arg2 arg3 ...
Doing something with 'arg1'.
Doing something with 'arg2'.
Doing something with 'arg3'.
Doing something with '...'.
myfunc() { for item;do cat <<<"Working about '$item'."; done ; }
Then
myfunc item1 tiem2 time3
Working about 'item1'.
Working about 'tiem2'.
Working about 'time3'.
This is also easy to read:
FilePath=(
"/tmp/path1/" #FilePath[0]
"/tmp/path2/" #FilePath[1]
)
#Loop
for Path in "${FilePath[@]}"
do
echo "$Path"
done
None of those answers include a counter...
#!/bin/bash
## declare an array variable
declare -a array=("one" "two" "three")
# get length of an array
arraylength=${#array[@]}
# use for loop to read all values and indexes
for (( i=1; i<${arraylength}+1; i++ ));
do
echo $i " / " ${arraylength} " : " ${array[$i-1]}
done
Output:
1 / 3 : one
2 / 3 : two
3 / 3 : three
If you are using Korn shell, there is "set -A databaseName ", else there is "declare -a databaseName"
To write a script working on all shells,
set -A databaseName=("db1" "db2" ....) ||
declare -a databaseName=("db1" "db2" ....)
# now loop
for dbname in "${arr[@]}"
do
echo "$dbname" # or whatever
done
It should be work on all shells.
That is possible, of course.
for databaseName in a b c d e f; do
# do something like: echo $databaseName
done
See Bash Loops for, while and until for details.
Try this. It is working and tested.
for k in "${array[@]}"
do
echo $k
done
# For accessing with the echo command: echo ${array[0]}, ${array[1]}
In the same spirit as 4ndrew's answer:
listOfNames="RA
RB
R C
RD"
# To allow for other whitespace in the string:
# 1. add double quotes around the list variable, or
# 2. see the IFS note (under 'Side Notes')
for databaseName in "$listOfNames" # <-- Note: Added "" quotes.
do
echo "$databaseName" # (i.e. do action / processing of $databaseName here...)
done
# Outputs
# RA
# RB
# R C
# RD
B. No whitespace in the names:
listOfNames="RA
RB
R C
RD"
for databaseName in $listOfNames # Note: No quotes
do
echo "$databaseName" # (i.e. do action / processing of $databaseName here...)
done
# Outputs
# RA
# RB
# R
# C
# RD
Notes
listOfNames="RA RB R C RD"
has the same output.Other ways to bring in data include:
Read from stdin
# line delimited (each databaseName is stored on a line)
while read databaseName
do
echo "$databaseName" # i.e. do action / processing of $databaseName here...
done # <<< or_another_input_method_here
IFS='\n'
, or for MacOS IFS='\r'
)#!/bin/bash
at the top of the script file indicates the execution environment.Other Sources (while read loop)
listOfNames="db_one db_two db_three"
for databaseName in $listOfNames
do
echo $databaseName
done
or just
for databaseName in db_one db_two db_three
do
echo $databaseName
done
I loop through an array of my projects for a git pull
update:
#!/bin/sh
projects="
web
ios
android
"
for project in $projects do
cd $HOME/develop/$project && git pull
end
How you loop through an array, depends on the presence of new line characters. With new line characters separating the array elements, the array can be referred to as "$array"
, otherwise it should be referred to as "${array[@]}"
. The following script will make it clear:
#!/bin/bash
mkdir temp
mkdir temp/aaa
mkdir temp/bbb
mkdir temp/ccc
array=$(ls temp)
array1=(aaa bbb ccc)
array2=$(echo -e "aaa\nbbb\nccc")
echo '$array'
echo "$array"
echo
for dirname in "$array"; do
echo "$dirname"
done
echo
for dirname in "${array[@]}"; do
echo "$dirname"
done
echo
echo '$array1'
echo "$array1"
echo
for dirname in "$array1"; do
echo "$dirname"
done
echo
for dirname in "${array1[@]}"; do
echo "$dirname"
done
echo
echo '$array2'
echo "$array2"
echo
for dirname in "$array2"; do
echo "$dirname"
done
echo
for dirname in "${array2[@]}"; do
echo "$dirname"
done
rmdir temp/aaa
rmdir temp/bbb
rmdir temp/ccc
rmdir temp
What I really needed for this was something like this:
for i in $(the_array); do something; done
For instance:
for i in $(ps -aux | grep vlc | awk '{ print $2 }'); do kill -9 $i; done
(Would kill all processes with vlc in their name)
Simple way :
arr=("sharlock" "bomkesh" "feluda" ) ##declare array
len=${#arr[*]} # it returns the array length
#iterate with while loop
i=0
while [ $i -lt $len ]
do
echo ${arr[$i]}
i=$((i+1))
done
#iterate with for loop
for i in $arr
do
echo $i
done
#iterate with splice
echo ${arr[@]:0:3}
Surprised that nobody's posted this yet -- if you need the indices of the elements while you're looping through the array, you can do this:
arr=(foo bar baz)
for i in ${!arr[@]}
do
echo $i "${arr[i]}"
done
Output:
0 foo
1 bar
2 baz
I find this a lot more elegant than the "traditional" for-loop style (for (( i=0; i<${#arr[@]}; i++ ))
).
(${!arr[@]}
and $i
don't need to be quoted because they're just numbers; some would suggest quoting them anyway, but that's just personal preference.)
The declare array doesn't work for Korn shell. Use the below example for the Korn shell:
promote_sla_chk_lst="cdi xlob"
set -A promote_arry $promote_sla_chk_lst
for i in ${promote_arry[*]};
do
echo $i
done
Possible first line of every Bash script/session:
say() { for line in "${@}" ; do printf "%s\n" "${line}" ; done ; }
Use e.g.:
$ aa=( 7 -4 -e ) ; say "${aa[@]}"
7
-4
-e
May consider: echo
interprets -e
as option here
Source: Stackoverflow.com