Add value to array only if not already in, using bash - linux

As I said the title. I tried this code:
areasArray=()
while IFS= read -r line
do
areaName="$(awk -F ";" '{print $3}')"
echo $areaName
if [[ ! " ${areasArray[#]} " =~ " $areaName " ]]; then
areasArray+=($areaName)
echo ${areasArray[*]}
fi
done < $reportFile
$reportFile refers to a CSV file that looks like this:
something;something;US
something;something;US
something;something;UK
something;something;FR
something;something;UK
something;something;FR
And the array will looks like this: US US UK FR UK FR. But I want every zone to be added only if it's not already there. So it should looks like this: US UK FR. How can I do that? Thanks.

If you need to perform lookup, use an associative array, not an indexed array. Basically, you'll use the keys of the associate array like a set.
declare -A areasArray
while IFS=";" read _ _ areaName _; do
if [[ ! -v areasArray[$areaName] ]]; then
areasArray[$areaName]=
fi
done < "$reportFile"
Unless there is a specific action you want to take only if the key isn't already present, you can skip the if; areasArray[$areaName]= is idempotent.

Related

Bash shell how to remove string from array with -= operator [duplicate]

I need to remove an element from an array in bash shell.
Generally I'd simply do:
array=("${(#)array:#<element to remove>}")
Unfortunately the element I want to remove is a variable so I can't use the previous command.
Down here an example:
array+=(pluto)
array+=(pippo)
delete=(pluto)
array( ${array[#]/$delete} ) -> but clearly doesn't work because of {}
Any idea?
The following works as you would like in bash and zsh:
$ array=(pluto pippo)
$ delete=pluto
$ echo ${array[#]/$delete}
pippo
$ array=( "${array[#]/$delete}" ) #Quotes when working with strings
If need to delete more than one element:
...
$ delete=(pluto pippo)
for del in ${delete[#]}
do
array=("${array[#]/$del}") #Quotes when working with strings
done
Caveat
This technique actually removes prefixes matching $delete from the elements, not necessarily whole elements.
Update
To really remove an exact item, you need to walk through the array, comparing the target to each element, and using unset to delete an exact match.
array=(pluto pippo bob)
delete=(pippo)
for target in "${delete[#]}"; do
for i in "${!array[#]}"; do
if [[ ${array[i]} = $target ]]; then
unset 'array[i]'
fi
done
done
Note that if you do this, and one or more elements is removed, the indices will no longer be a continuous sequence of integers.
$ declare -p array
declare -a array=([0]="pluto" [2]="bob")
The simple fact is, arrays were not designed for use as mutable data structures. They are primarily used for storing lists of items in a single variable without needing to waste a character as a delimiter (e.g., to store a list of strings which can contain whitespace).
If gaps are a problem, then you need to rebuild the array to fill the gaps:
for i in "${!array[#]}"; do
new_array+=( "${array[i]}" )
done
array=("${new_array[#]}")
unset new_array
You could build up a new array without the undesired element, then assign it back to the old array. This works in bash:
array=(pluto pippo)
new_array=()
for value in "${array[#]}"
do
[[ $value != pluto ]] && new_array+=($value)
done
array=("${new_array[#]}")
unset new_array
This yields:
echo "${array[#]}"
pippo
This is the most direct way to unset a value if you know it's position.
$ array=(one two three)
$ echo ${#array[#]}
3
$ unset 'array[1]'
$ echo ${array[#]}
one three
$ echo ${#array[#]}
2
This answer is specific to the case of deleting multiple values from large arrays, where performance is important.
The most voted solutions are (1) pattern substitution on an array, or (2) iterating over the array elements. The first is fast, but can only deal with elements that have distinct prefix, the second has O(n*k), n=array size, k=elements to remove. Associative array are relative new feature, and might not have been common when the question was originally posted.
For the exact match case, with large n and k, possible to improve performance from O(nk) to O(n+klog(k)). In practice, O(n) assuming k much lower than n. Most of the speed up is based on using associative array to identify items to be removed.
Performance (n-array size, k-values to delete). Performance measure seconds of user time
N K New(seconds) Current(seconds) Speedup
1000 10 0.005 0.033 6X
10000 10 0.070 0.348 5X
10000 20 0.070 0.656 9X
10000 1 0.043 0.050 -7%
As expected, the current solution is linear to N*K, and the fast solution is practically linear to K, with much lower constant. The fast solution is slightly slower vs the current solution when k=1, due to additional setup.
The 'Fast' solution: array=list of input, delete=list of values to remove.
declare -A delk
for del in "${delete[#]}" ; do delk[$del]=1 ; done
# Tag items to remove, based on
for k in "${!array[#]}" ; do
[ "${delk[${array[$k]}]-}" ] && unset 'array[k]'
done
# Compaction
array=("${array[#]}")
Benchmarked against current solution, from the most-voted answer.
for target in "${delete[#]}"; do
for i in "${!array[#]}"; do
if [[ ${array[i]} = $target ]]; then
unset 'array[i]'
fi
done
done
array=("${array[#]}")
Here's a one-line solution with mapfile:
$ mapfile -d $'\0' -t arr < <(printf '%s\0' "${arr[#]}" | grep -Pzv "<regexp>")
Example:
$ arr=("Adam" "Bob" "Claire"$'\n'"Smith" "David" "Eve" "Fred")
$ echo "Size: ${#arr[*]} Contents: ${arr[*]}"
Size: 6 Contents: Adam Bob Claire
Smith David Eve Fred
$ mapfile -d $'\0' -t arr < <(printf '%s\0' "${arr[#]}" | grep -Pzv "^Claire\nSmith$")
$ echo "Size: ${#arr[*]} Contents: ${arr[*]}"
Size: 5 Contents: Adam Bob David Eve Fred
This method allows for great flexibility by modifying/exchanging the grep command and doesn't leave any empty strings in the array.
Partial answer only
To delete the first item in the array
unset 'array[0]'
To delete the last item in the array
unset 'array[-1]'
To expand on the above answers, the following can be used to remove multiple elements from an array, without partial matching:
ARRAY=(one two onetwo three four threefour "one six")
TO_REMOVE=(one four)
TEMP_ARRAY=()
for pkg in "${ARRAY[#]}"; do
for remove in "${TO_REMOVE[#]}"; do
KEEP=true
if [[ ${pkg} == ${remove} ]]; then
KEEP=false
break
fi
done
if ${KEEP}; then
TEMP_ARRAY+=(${pkg})
fi
done
ARRAY=("${TEMP_ARRAY[#]}")
unset TEMP_ARRAY
This will result in an array containing:
(two onetwo three threefour "one six")
Here's a (probably very bash-specific) little function involving bash variable indirection and unset; it's a general solution that does not involve text substitution or discarding empty elements and has no problems with quoting/whitespace etc.
delete_ary_elmt() {
local word=$1 # the element to search for & delete
local aryref="$2[#]" # a necessary step since '${!$2[#]}' is a syntax error
local arycopy=("${!aryref}") # create a copy of the input array
local status=1
for (( i = ${#arycopy[#]} - 1; i >= 0; i-- )); do # iterate over indices backwards
elmt=${arycopy[$i]}
[[ $elmt == $word ]] && unset "$2[$i]" && status=0 # unset matching elmts in orig. ary
done
return $status # return 0 if something was deleted; 1 if not
}
array=(a 0 0 b 0 0 0 c 0 d e 0 0 0)
delete_ary_elmt 0 array
for e in "${array[#]}"; do
echo "$e"
done
# prints "a" "b" "c" "d" in lines
Use it like delete_ary_elmt ELEMENT ARRAYNAME without any $ sigil. Switch the == $word for == $word* for prefix matches; use ${elmt,,} == ${word,,} for case-insensitive matches; etc., whatever bash [[ supports.
It works by determining the indices of the input array and iterating over them backwards (so deleting elements doesn't screw up iteration order). To get the indices you need to access the input array by name, which can be done via bash variable indirection x=1; varname=x; echo ${!varname} # prints "1".
You can't access arrays by name like aryname=a; echo "${$aryname[#]}, this gives you an error. You can't do aryname=a; echo "${!aryname[#]}", this gives you the indices of the variable aryname (although it is not an array). What DOES work is aryref="a[#]"; echo "${!aryref}", which will print the elements of the array a, preserving shell-word quoting and whitespace exactly like echo "${a[#]}". But this only works for printing the elements of an array, not for printing its length or indices (aryref="!a[#]" or aryref="#a[#]" or "${!!aryref}" or "${#!aryref}", they all fail).
So I copy the original array by its name via bash indirection and get the indices from the copy. To iterate over the indices in reverse I use a C-style for loop. I could also do it by accessing the indices via ${!arycopy[#]} and reversing them with tac, which is a cat that turns around the input line order.
A function solution without variable indirection would probably have to involve eval, which may or may not be safe to use in that situation (I can't tell).
Using unset
To remove an element at particular index, we can use unset and then do copy to another array. Only just unset is not required in this case. Because unset does not remove the element it just sets null string to the particular index in array.
declare -a arr=('aa' 'bb' 'cc' 'dd' 'ee')
unset 'arr[1]'
declare -a arr2=()
i=0
for element in "${arr[#]}"
do
arr2[$i]=$element
((++i))
done
echo "${arr[#]}"
echo "1st val is ${arr[1]}, 2nd val is ${arr[2]}"
echo "${arr2[#]}"
echo "1st val is ${arr2[1]}, 2nd val is ${arr2[2]}"
Output is
aa cc dd ee
1st val is , 2nd val is cc
aa cc dd ee
1st val is cc, 2nd val is dd
Using :<idx>
We can remove some set of elements using :<idx> also. For example if we want to remove 1st element we can use :1 as mentioned below.
declare -a arr=('aa' 'bb' 'cc' 'dd' 'ee')
arr2=("${arr[#]:1}")
echo "${arr2[#]}"
echo "1st val is ${arr2[1]}, 2nd val is ${arr2[2]}"
Output is
bb cc dd ee
1st val is cc, 2nd val is dd
http://wiki.bash-hackers.org/syntax/pe#substring_removal
${PARAMETER#PATTERN} # remove from beginning
${PARAMETER##PATTERN} # remove from the beginning, greedy match
${PARAMETER%PATTERN} # remove from the end
${PARAMETER%%PATTERN} # remove from the end, greedy match
In order to do a full remove element, you have to do an unset command with an if statement. If you don't care about removing prefixes from other variables or about supporting whitespace in the array, then you can just drop the quotes and forget about for loops.
See example below for a few different ways to clean up an array.
options=("foo" "bar" "foo" "foobar" "foo bar" "bars" "bar")
# remove bar from the start of each element
options=("${options[#]/#"bar"}")
# options=("foo" "" "foo" "foobar" "foo bar" "s" "")
# remove the complete string "foo" in a for loop
count=${#options[#]}
for ((i = 0; i < count; i++)); do
if [ "${options[i]}" = "foo" ] ; then
unset 'options[i]'
fi
done
# options=( "" "foobar" "foo bar" "s" "")
# remove empty options
# note the count variable can't be recalculated easily on a sparse array
for ((i = 0; i < count; i++)); do
# echo "Element $i: '${options[i]}'"
if [ -z "${options[i]}" ] ; then
unset 'options[i]'
fi
done
# options=("foobar" "foo bar" "s")
# list them with select
echo "Choose an option:"
PS3='Option? '
select i in "${options[#]}" Quit
do
case $i in
Quit) break ;;
*) echo "You selected \"$i\"" ;;
esac
done
Output
Choose an option:
1) foobar
2) foo bar
3) s
4) Quit
Option?
Hope that helps.
There is also this syntax, e.g. if you want to delete the 2nd element :
array=("${array[#]:0:1}" "${array[#]:2}")
which is in fact the concatenation of 2 tabs. The first from the index 0 to the index 1 (exclusive) and the 2nd from the index 2 to the end.
POSIX shell script does not have arrays.
So most probably you are using a specific dialect such as bash, korn shells or zsh.
Therefore, your question as of now cannot be answered.
Maybe this works for you:
unset array[$delete]
What I do is:
array="$(echo $array | tr ' ' '\n' | sed "/itemtodelete/d")"
BAM, that item is removed.
This is a quick-and-dirty solution that will work in simple cases but will break if (a) there are regex special characters in $delete, or (b) there are any spaces at all in any items. Starting with:
array+=(pluto)
array+=(pippo)
delete=(pluto)
Delete all entries exactly matching $delete:
array=(`echo $array | fmt -1 | grep -v "^${delete}$" | fmt -999999`)
resulting in
echo $array -> pippo, and making sure it's an array:
echo $array[1] -> pippo
fmt is a little obscure: fmt -1 wraps at the first column (to put each item on its own line. That's where the problem arises with items in spaces.) fmt -999999 unwraps it back to one line, putting back the spaces between items. There are other ways to do that, such as xargs.
Addendum: If you want to delete just the first match, use sed, as described here:
array=(`echo $array | fmt -1 | sed "0,/^${delete}$/{//d;}" | fmt -999999`)
Actually, I just noticed that the shell syntax somewhat has a behavior built-in that allows for easy reconstruction of the array when, as posed in the question, an item should be removed.
# let's set up an array of items to consume:
x=()
for (( i=0; i<10; i++ )); do
x+=("$i")
done
# here, we consume that array:
while (( ${#x[#]} )); do
i=$(( $RANDOM % ${#x[#]} ))
echo "${x[i]} / ${x[#]}"
x=("${x[#]:0:i}" "${x[#]:i+1}")
done
Notice how we constructed the array using bash's x+=() syntax?
You could actually add more than one item with that, the content of a whole other array at once.
In ZSH this is dead easy (note this uses more bash compatible syntax than necessary where possible for ease of understanding):
# I always include an edge case to make sure each element
# is not being word split.
start=(one two three 'four 4' five)
work=(${(#)start})
idx=2
val=${work[idx]}
# How to remove a single element easily.
# Also works for associative arrays (at least in zsh)
work[$idx]=()
echo "Array size went down by one: "
[[ $#work -eq $(($#start - 1)) ]] && echo "OK"
echo "Array item "$val" is now gone: "
[[ -z ${work[(r)$val]} ]] && echo OK
echo "Array contents are as expected: "
wanted=("${start[#]:0:1}" "${start[#]:2}")
[[ "${(j.:.)wanted[#]}" == "${(j.:.)work[#]}" ]] && echo "OK"
echo "-- array contents: start --"
print -l -r -- "-- $#start elements" ${(#)start}
echo "-- array contents: work --"
print -l -r -- "-- $#work elements" "${work[#]}"
Results:
Array size went down by one:
OK
Array item two is now gone:
OK
Array contents are as expected:
OK
-- array contents: start --
-- 5 elements
one
two
three
four 4
five
-- array contents: work --
-- 4 elements
one
three
four 4
five
To avoid conflicts with array index using unset - see https://stackoverflow.com/a/49626928/3223785 and https://stackoverflow.com/a/47798640/3223785 for more information - reassign the array to itself: ARRAY_VAR=(${ARRAY_VAR[#]}).
#!/bin/bash
ARRAY_VAR=(0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9)
unset ARRAY_VAR[5]
unset ARRAY_VAR[4]
ARRAY_VAR=(${ARRAY_VAR[#]})
echo ${ARRAY_VAR[#]}
A_LENGTH=${#ARRAY_VAR[*]}
for (( i=0; i<=$(( $A_LENGTH -1 )); i++ )) ; do
echo ""
echo "INDEX - $i"
echo "VALUE - ${ARRAY_VAR[$i]}"
done
exit 0
[Ref.: https://tecadmin.net/working-with-array-bash-script/ ]
How about something like:
array=(one two three)
array_t=" ${array[#]} "
delete=one
array=(${array_t// $delete / })
unset array_t
#/bin/bash
echo "# define array with six elements"
arr=(zero one two three 'four 4' five)
echo "# unset by index: 0"
unset -v 'arr[0]'
for i in ${!arr[*]}; do echo "arr[$i]=${arr[$i]}"; done
arr_delete_by_content() { # value to delete
for i in ${!arr[*]}; do
[ "${arr[$i]}" = "$1" ] && unset -v 'arr[$i]'
done
}
echo "# unset in global variable where value: three"
arr_delete_by_content three
for i in ${!arr[*]}; do echo "arr[$i]=${arr[$i]}"; done
echo "# rearrange indices"
arr=( "${arr[#]}" )
for i in ${!arr[*]}; do echo "arr[$i]=${arr[$i]}"; done
delete_value() { # value arrayelements..., returns array decl.
local e val=$1; new=(); shift
for e in "${#}"; do [ "$val" != "$e" ] && new+=("$e"); done
declare -p new|sed 's,^[^=]*=,,'
}
echo "# new array without value: two"
declare -a arr="$(delete_value two "${arr[#]}")"
for i in ${!arr[*]}; do echo "arr[$i]=${arr[$i]}"; done
delete_values() { # arraydecl values..., returns array decl. (keeps indices)
declare -a arr="$1"; local i v; shift
for v in "${#}"; do
for i in ${!arr[*]}; do
[ "$v" = "${arr[$i]}" ] && unset -v 'arr[$i]'
done
done
declare -p arr|sed 's,^[^=]*=,,'
}
echo "# new array without values: one five (keep indices)"
declare -a arr="$(delete_values "$(declare -p arr|sed 's,^[^=]*=,,')" one five)"
for i in ${!arr[*]}; do echo "arr[$i]=${arr[$i]}"; done
# new array without multiple values and rearranged indices is left to the reader

Expanding a string with a variable reference later, after the variable is assigned

I'm trying to combine two lists containing names (if available) and emails with a standard email text in bash (shell)
(I had to delete the irrelevant code as it contains some private info, so some of the code might look unusal.)
The first half of the code checks if there is a name list along with the email list.
The second half combines only the email address and text if no name is available, if the name list is available it also 'tries' to combine the name, email and text.
f1 = email list and f2 = name list.
As you can see in the first half of the code below, $f2 should show the names if the list is available but it does not show anything in the log file.
I been trying to sort this problem out for two days but nothing has worked. When names are available it always outputs as "Hello ..." when it should be "Hello John D..."
#FIRST HALF
if [ "$names" = "no" ]
then
text="Hello..."
elif [ "$names" = "yes" ]
then
text="Hello $f2..."
fi
#SECOND HALF
if [ "$names" = "no" ]
then
for i in $(cat $emaillist); do
echo "$text" >> /root/log
echo "$i" >> /root/log
done
elif [ "$names" = "yes" ]
then
paste $emaillist $namelist | while IFS="$(printf '\t')" read -r f1 f2
do
echo "$text" >> /root/log
echo "$f1" >> /root/log
done
fi
When you run text="Hello $f2", $f2 is looked up at the time of the assignment; an exact string is assigned to text, and only that exact string is used later, on echo "$text".
This is very desirable behavior: If shell variables' values could run arbitrary code, it would be impossible to write shell scripts that handled untrusted data safely... but it does mean that implementing your program requires some changes.
If you want to defer evaluation (looking up the value of $f2 at expansion time rather than assignment), don't use a shell variable at all: Use a function instead.
case $names in
yes) write_greeting() { echo "Hello $name..."; };;
*) write_greeting() { echo "Hello..."; };;
esac
while read -r name <&3 && read -r email <&4; do
write_greeting
echo "$email"
done 3<"$namelist" 4<"$emaillist" >>/root/log
Some enhancements in the code above:
You don't need paste to read from two streams in lockstep; you can simply open them on different file descriptors (above, FDs 3 and 4 are chosen; only 0, 1 and 2 are reserved, so larger numbers could have been selected as well) with a separate read command for each.
Opening your output sink only once for the entire loop (by putting the redirection after the done) is far more efficient than re-opening it every time you want to write a single line.
Expansions, such as "$namelist" and "$emaillist", are always quoted; this makes code more reliable if dealing with filenames with unusual characters (including spaces and glob expressions), or if IFS is at a non-default value.

How to extract key value pairs from a file when values span multiple lines?

I'm a few weeks into bash scripting and I haven't advanced enough yet to get my head wrapped around this problem. Any help would be appreciated!
I have a "script.conf" file that contains the following:
key1=value1
key2=${HOME}/Folder
key3=( "k3v1" "k3 v2" "k3v3")
key4=( "k4v1"
"k4 v2"
"k4v3"
)
key5=value5
#key6="Do Not Include Me"
In a bash script, I want to read the contents of this script.conf file into an array. I've learned how to handle the scenarios for keys 1, 2, 3, and 5, but the key4 scenario throws a wrench into it with it spanning across multiple lines.
I've been exploring the use of sed -n '/=\s*[(]/,/[)]/{/' which does capture key4 and its value, but I can't figure out how to mix this so that the other keys are also captured in the matches. The range syntax is also new to me, so I haven't figured out how to separate the key/value. I feel like there is an easy regex that would accomplish what I want... in plain-text: "find and group the pattern ^(.*)= (for the key), then group everything after the '=' char until another ^(.*)= match is found, rinse and repeat". I guess if I do this, I need to change the while read line to not handle the key/value separation for me (I'll be looking into this while I'm waiting for a response). BTW, I think a solution where the value of key4 is flattened (new lines removed) would be acceptable; I know for key3 I have to store the value as a string and then convert it to an array later when I want to iterate over it since an array element apparently can't contain a list.
Am I on the right path with sed or is this a job for awk or some other tool? (I haven't ventured into awk yet). Is there an easier approach that I'm missing because I'm too deep into the forest (like changing the while read line in the LoadConfigFile function)?
Here is the code that I have so far in script.sh for processing and capturing the other pairs into the $config array:
__AppDir=$(dirname $0)
__AppName=${__ScriptName%.*}
typeset -A config #init config array
config=( #Setting Default Config values
[key1]="defaultValue1"
[key2]="${HOME}/defaultFolder"
[QuietMode]=0
[Verbose]=0 #Ex. Usage: [[ "${config[Verbose]}" -gt 0 ]] && echo ">>>Debug print"
)
function LoadConfigFile() {
local cfgFile="${1}"
shopt -s extglob #Needed to remove trailing spaces
if [ -f ${cfgFile} ]; then
while IFS='=' read -r key value; do
if [[ "${key:0:1}" == "#" ]]; then
#echo "Skipping Comment line: ${key}"
elif [ "${key:-EMPTY}" != "EMPTY" ]; then
value="${value%%\#*}" # Delete in-line, right comments
value="${value%%*( )}" # Delete trailing spaces
value="${value%%( )*}" # Delete leading spaces
#value="${value%\"*}" # Delete opening string quotes
#value="${value#\"*}" # Delete closing string quotes
#Manipulate any variables included in the value so that they can be expanded correctly
# - value must be stored in the format: "${var1}". `backticks`, "$var2", and "doubleQuotes" are left as is
value="${value//\"/\\\"}" # Escape double quotes for eval
value="${value//\`/\\\`}" # Escape backticks for eval
value="${value//\$/\\\$}" # Escape ALL '$' for eval
value="${value//\\\${/\${}" # Undo the protection of '$' if it was followed by a '{'
value=$(eval "printf '%s\n' \"${value}\"")
config[${key}]=${value} #Store the value into the config array at the specified key
echo " >>>DBG: Key = ${key}, Value = ${value}"
#else
# echo "Skipped Empty Key"
fi
done < "${cfgFile}"
fi
}
CONFIG_FILE=${__AppDir}/${__AppName}.conf
echo "Config File # ${CONFIG_FILE}"
LoadConfigFile ${CONFIG_FILE}
#Print elements of $config
echo "Script Config Values:"
echo "----------------------------"
for key in "${!config[#]}"; do #The '!' char gets an array of the keys, without it, we would get an array of the values
printf " %-20s = %s\n" "${key}" "${config[${key}]}"
done
echo "------ End Script Config ------"
#To convert to an array...
declare -a valAsArray=${config[RequiredAppPackages]} #Convert the value from a string to an array
echo "Count = ${#valAsArray[#]}"
for itemCfg in "${valAsArray[#]}"; do
echo " item = ${itemCfg}"
done
As I mentioned before, I'm just starting to learn bash and Linux scripting in general, so if you see that I'm doing some taboo things in other areas of my code too, please feel free to provide feedback in the comments... I don't want to start bad habits early on :-).
*If it matters, the OS is Ubuntu 14.04.
EDIT:
As requested, after reading the script.conf file, I would like for the elements in $config[#] to be equivalent to the following:
typeset -A config #init config array
config=(
[key1]="value1"
[key2]="${HOME}/Folder"
[key3]="( \"k3v1\" \"k3 v2\" \"k3v3\" )"
[key4]="( \"k4v1\" \"k4 v2\" \"k4v3\" )"
[key5]="value5"
)
I want to be able to convert the values of elements 'key4' and 'key3' into an array and iterated over them the same way in the following code:
declare -a keyValAsArray=${config[keyN]} #Convert the value from a string to an array
echo "Count = ${#keyValAsArray[#]}"
for item in "${keyValAsArray[#]}"; do
echo " item = ${item}"
done
I don't think it matters if \n is preserved for key4's value or not... that depends on if declare has a problem with it.
A shell is an environment from which to call tools with a language to sequence those calls. It is NOT a tool to manipulate text. The standard UNIX tool to manipulate text is awk. Trying to manipulate text in shell IS a bad habit, see why-is-using-a-shell-loop-to-process-text-considered-bad-pr‌​actice for SOME of the reasons why
You still didn't post the expected result of populating the config array so I'm not sure but I think this is what you wanted:
$ cat tst.sh
declare -A config="( $(awk '
{ gsub(/^[[:space:]]+|([[:space:]]+|#.*)$/,"") }
!NF { next }
/^[^="]+=/ {
name = gensub(/=.*/,"",1)
value = gensub(/^[^=]+=/,"",1)
n2v[name] = value
next
}
{ n2v[name] = n2v[name] OFS $0 }
END {
for (name in n2v) {
value = gensub(/"/,"\\\\&","g",n2v[name])
printf "[%s]=\"%s\"\n", name, value
}
}
' script.conf
) )"
declare -p config
$ ./tst.sh
declare -A config='([key5]="value5" [key4]="( \"k4v1\" \"k4 v2\" \"k4v3\" )" [key3]="( \"k3v1\" \"k3 v2\" \"k3v3\")" [key2]="/home/Ed/Folder" [key1]="value1" )'
The above uses GNU awk for gensub(), with other awks you'd use [g]sub() instead.

Bash - How to check if an id string in one file is in an id range policy in another file?

After a long search with no success, I've come here for some help. I have two files:
a.txt - contains a list of id strings
b.txt - contains a list of id range policies
For instance:
a.txt:
AC0359
AC0360
AC0361
AC0362
AC0369
AC0372
AC0374
AC0376
AC0380
BD0381
BD0384
BD0386
BD0389
BD0390
BD0392
BD0393
EF0394
EF0395
EF0398
EF0402
EF0404
EF0409
EF0410
b.txt:
from="AC0000" to="AC0400"
from="BD0300" to="BD0700"
from="EF0400" to="EF1000"
from="GT0000" to="GT2700"
I would like to know for each of the id strings listed in a.txt, if it is within one of the range policies listed in b.txt. I have been trying to find a solution to this for quite some time, so I really appreciate the help.
This is what I have done so far:
found_range=false
while read barcode; do
while read range_line <&3; do
if [[ $range_line == from=* && $found_range = false ]]
then
start_range=$(echo $range_line | cut -d '"' -f 2);
end_range=$(echo $range_line | cut -d '"' -f 4);
if [[ ! "$barcode" < "$start_range" && ! "$barcode" > "$end_range" ]]
then
echo "$barcode is between the range $start_range and $end_range"
fi
fi
done 3<b.txt
done <a.txt
Thanks!
I was able to solve this, my solution is in the edited answer.

Shell Script that performs different functions based on input from file

I am trying to merge two very different scripts together for consolidation and ease of use purposes. I have an idea of how I want these scripts to look and operate, but I could use some help getting started. Here is the flow and look of the script:
The input file would be a standard text file with this syntax:
#Vegetables
Broccoli|Green|14
Carrot|Orange|9
Tomato|Red|7
#Fruits
Apple|Red|15
Banana|Yellow|5
Grape|Purple|10
The script would take the input of this file. It would ignore the commented portions, but use them to dictate the output. So based on the fact that it is a Vegetable, it would perform a specific function with the values listed between the delimiter (|). Then it would go to the Fruits and do something different with the values, based on that delimiter. Perhaps, I would add Vegetable/Fruit to one of the values and dependent on that value it would perform the function while in this loop to read the file. Thank you for your help in getting this started.
UPDATE:
So I am trying to implement the IFS setup and thought of a more logical arrangement. The input file will have the "categories" displayed within the parameters. So the setup will be like this:
Vegetable|Carrot|Yellow
Fruit|Apple|Red
Vegetable|Tomato|Red
From there, the script will read in the lines and perform the function. So basically this type of setup in shell:
while read -r category item color
do
if [[ $category == "Vegetable" ]] ; then
echo "The $item is $color"
elif [[ $category == "Fruit" ]] ; then
echo "The $item is $color"
else
echo "Bad input"
done < "$input_file"
Something along those lines...I am just having trouble putting it all together.
Use read to input the lines. Do a case statement on their prefix:
{
while read DATA; do
case "$DATA" in
\#*) ... switch function ...;;
*) eval "$FUNCTION";;
esac
done
} <inputfile
Dependent on your problem you might want to experiment with setting $IFS before reading and read multiple variables in 1 go.
You can redefine the processing function each time you meet a # directive:
#! /bin/bash
while read line ; do
if [[ $line == '#Vegetables' ]] ; then
process () {
echo Vegetables: "$#"
}
elif [[ $line == '#Fruits' ]] ; then
process () {
echo Fruits: "$#"
}
else
process $line
fi
done < "$1"
Note that the script does not skip empty lines.

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