Passing array to function of shell script

Question

How to pass array as function in shell script?
I written following code:

function test(){
param1 = $1
param2 = $2
for i in ${$param1[@]}
do
   for j in ${param2[@]}
do
       if($(i) = $(j) )
           then
           echo $(i)
           echo $(j)
       fi
done
done
}

but I am getting line 1: ${$(param1)[@]}: bad substitution

dogbane · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-30 11:00:43Z

18

There are multiple problems:

you can't have spaces around the = when assigning variables
your if statement has the wrong syntax
array passing isn't right
try not to call your function test because that is a shell command

Here is the fixed version:

myFunction(){
  param1=("${!1}")
  param2=("${!2}")
  for i in ${param1[@]}
  do
    for j in ${param2[@]}
    do
       if [ "${i}" == "${j}" ]
       then
           echo ${i}
           echo ${j}
       fi
    done
  done
}

a=(foo bar baz)
b=(foo bar qux)
myFunction a[@] b[@]

edited Jun 30, 2011 at 11:00

answered Jun 30, 2011 at 10:35

dogbane

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4 Comments

Vivek Goel Over a year ago

it is working but it is not looping . param1 only contains first index for array . param1[0]

Vivek Goel Over a year ago

I am calling as myFunction $p1 $p2 where $p1 size is 65

dogbane Over a year ago

@vivek-goel i've updated my answer and added an example function call.

Vivek Goel Over a year ago

a=(foo bar baz) b=(foo bar qux) myFunction a[@] b[@] gives me a[@] as o/p if I echo i. currently I am using as argument=echo ${a[@]} this method is working.

Pujan · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-30 10:37:00Z

0

You can use the following script accordingly

#!/bin/bash

param[0]=$1
param[1]=$2


function print_array  {
        array_name=$1
        eval echo \${$array_name[*]}
        return
}

print_array param
exit 0

answered Jun 30, 2011 at 10:37

Pujan

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Comments

rashedcs · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-11 11:05:11Z

0

A simple way :

function iterate 
{
  n=${#detective[@]}
  for (( i=0; i<n; i++ ))
  do
    echo ${detective[$i]}
  done
}

detective=("Feluda" "Sharlockhomes" "Bomkesh" )
iterate ${detective[@]}

answered Mar 11, 2019 at 11:05

rashedcs

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