Insert spaces in the string array

Question

I have the following array:

declare -a case=("060610" "080813" "101016" "121219" "141422")

I want to generate another array where the elements have whitespaces inserted appropriately as:

"06 06 10" "08 08 13" "10 10 16" "12 12 19" "14 14 22"

I got till handling the elements individually using sed as:

echo '060610' | sed 's/../& /g'

But I am not being able to do it while using the array. The sed confuses the white spaces in between the elements and I am left with the output:

echo "${case[@]}" | sed 's/../& /g'

Gives me:

06 06 10  0 80 81 3  10 10 16  1 21 21 9  14 14 22

Can someone help?

For the output I am talking about, I used this: echo "${case[@]}" | sed 's/../& /g' But I am yet to know a lot about using @ for calling an element. And still getting familiar with usage of braces and quotes. — pUTa432
– pUTa432, Commented Nov 14, 2016 at 21:32

Barmar · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-14 22:00:34Z

2

You need to loop over the array, not echo it as a whole, because you don't get the grouping when you echo it.

declare -a newcase
for c in "${case[@]}"
do
    newcase+=("$(echo "$c" | sed 's/../& /g')")
done

edited Nov 14, 2016 at 22:00

answered Nov 14, 2016 at 21:36

Barmar

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6 Comments

Barmar Over a year ago

To append a new element to the array.

pUTa432 Over a year ago

declare -a kpts for c in "${case[@]}"; do kpts+=$(echo "$c" | sed 's/../&/g'); done gives me: 060610080813101016121219141422 Am I doing alright?

Barmar Over a year ago

You seem to be missing the space after &. How are you printing the array?

Barmar Over a year ago

Sorry, I made a mistake, you have to wrap the value in () to create a new array element.

pUTa432 Over a year ago

I am printing it using echo "${kpts[3]}" But now 06 06 10... resp are the 0th, 1st, 2nd element of the array. I wanted 06 06 10 as the 0th element rather. Anyway I will try to use this and see what happens.

|

that other guy · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-14 22:02:13Z

2

You can use printf '%s\n' "${case[@]}" | sed 's/../& /g' to get each number on a separate line and avoiding the space problem:

$ declare -a case=("060610" "080813" "101016" "121219" "141422")

$ printf '%s\n' "${case[@]}" | sed 's/../& /g'
06 06 10
08 08 13
10 10 16
12 12 19
14 14 22

If you want it back into an array, you can use mapfile

answered Nov 14, 2016 at 22:02

that other guy

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