I want to write a script that loops through 15 strings (array possibly?) Is that possible?

Something like:

for databaseName in listOfNames
then # Do something
end

22 Answers

You can use it like this:

## declare an array variable
declare -a arr=("element1" "element2" "element3")
## now loop through the above array
for i in "${arr[@]}"
do echo "$i" # or do whatever with individual element of the array
done
# You can access them using echo "${arr[0]}", "${arr[1]}" also

Also works for multi-line array declaration

declare -a arr=("element1" "element2" "element3" "element4" )

9

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.

11

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=${#array[@]}
# use for loop to read all values and indexes
for (( i=0; i<${arraylength}; i++ ));
do echo "index: $i, value: ${array[$i]}"
done

Output:

index: 0, value: one
index: 1, value: two
index: 2, value: three

8

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

Simple list variable

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.

23

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

1. In the second example, using listOfNames="RA RB R C RD" has the same output.

Other ways to bring in data include:

• stdin (listed below),
• variables,
• an array (the accepted answer),
• a file...

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

2. the bash IFS "field separator to line" [1] delimiter can be specified in the script to allow other whitespace (i.e. IFS='\n', or for MacOS IFS='\r')
3. I like the accepted answer also :) -- I've include these snippets as other helpful ways that also answer the question.
4. Including #!/bin/bash at the top of the script file indicates the execution environment.
5. It took me months to figure out how to code this simply :)

Other Sources (while read loop)

4

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

0

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.)

1

This is also easy to read:

FilePath=( "/tmp/path1/" #FilePath[0] "/tmp/path2/" #FilePath[1]
)
#Loop
for Path in "${FilePath[@]}"
do echo "$Path"
done

1

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}

I used this approach for my GitHub updates, and I found it simple.

## declare an array variable
arr_variable=("kofi" "kwame" "Ama")
## now loop through the above array
for i in "${arr_variable[@]}"
do echo "$i"
done 

You can iterate through bash array values using a counter with three-expression (C style) to read all values and indexes for loops syntax:

declare -a kofi=("kofi" "kwame" "Ama")
# get the length of the array
length=${#kofi[@]}
for (( j=0; j<${length}; j++ ));
do print (f "Current index %d with value %s\n" $j "${kofi[$j]}")
done

1

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

0

Implicit array for script or functions:

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

Then into a script:

#!/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 '...'.

Same in a function:

myfunc() { for item;do cat <<<"Working about '$item'."; done ; }

Then

myfunc item1 tiem2 time3
Working about 'item1'.
Working about 'tiem2'.
Working about 'time3'.

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

3

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]}

2

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"

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.

1

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)

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

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

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

Declare an array of string with type

declare -a StringArray=("Linux Mint" "Fedora" "Red Hat Linux" "Ubuntu" "Debian" )

Iterate the string array using for loop

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

Output

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

2