[Linux 常見問題] Split string into an array in Bash

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Question 
In a Bash script I would like to split a line into pieces and put them into an array. For example: 

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1. Paris, France, Europe  

I would like to have them in an array like this: 

array[0] = Paris
array[1] = France
array[2] = Europe

How-To 
Try this command: 

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1. IFS=', ' read -a array <<< "$string"  

To access an individual element: 

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1. echo "${array[0]}"  

To iterate over the elements: 

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1. for element in ${array[@]}  
2. do  
3.     echo "$element"  
4. done  

To get both the index and the value: 

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1. for index in ${!array[@]}  
2. do  
3.     echo "$index ${array[index]}"  
4. done  

The last example is useful because Bash arrays are sparse. In other words, you can delete an element or add an element and then the indices are not contiguous. To get the number of elements in an array: 

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1. echo "${#array[@]}"  

As mentioned above, arrays can be sparse so you shouldn't use the length to get the last element. Here's how you can in Bash 4.2 and later: 

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1. echo "${array[-1]}"  

Below is the sample code: 

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1. #!/bin/bash  
2. PWD=`pwd`  
3. echo "Current PWD=$PWD"  
4. IFS='/' read -a array <<< "$PWD"  
5.   
6. echo "There are ${#array[@]} element(s)."  
7. for index in ${!array[@]}  
8. do  
9.     echo "$index ${array[index]}"  
10. done  

Execution result sample: 

# ./test.sh
Current PWD=/root/tmp/test
There are 4 element(s).
0
1 root
2 tmp
3 test

Supplement 
* Blog - Separate string into array from bash