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Creating An Array
Array variables are named just like other bash variables, and are created automatically when they are accessed. Here is an example:
[me@linuxbox ~]$ a[1]=foo [me@linuxbox ~]$ echo ${a[1]} foo
[me@linuxbox ~]$ a[1]=foo [me@linuxbox ~]$ echo ${a[1]} foo
Here we see an example of both the assignment and access of an array element. With the first command, element 1 of array a is assigned the value “foo”. The second command displays the stored value of element 1. The use of braces in the second command is re- quired to prevent the shell from attempting pathname expansion on the name of the array element.
An array can also be created with the declare command:
[me@linuxbox ~]$ declare -a a
[me@linuxbox ~]$ declare -a a
Using the -a option, this example of declare creates the array a.