Associative arrays with space in the key

Question

I am trying to create an associative array in Bash in the following way:

#!/bin/bash
hash["name"]='Ashwin'
echo ${hash["name"]}

This prints the desired output, Ashwin, when executed.

But when the key has a space in it,

#!/bin/bash
hash["first name"]='Ashwin'
echo ${hash["first name"]}

I get the following error

test2.sh: line 2: first name: syntax error in expression (error token is "name")

Are keys not allowed to have spaces in them?

Based on your comment to the answer you are using bash 3. Bash 3 does not support associative arrays, here are some [workarounds](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11776468/create-associative-array-in-bash-3) — iruvar, Apr 23 '13 at 19:23
Since associative arrays aren't supported prior to `bash` 4, your first example is actually being treated as a regular array. The parser is able to deal with simple strings where it expects an integer value, and treats them all as having the value 0. You can index `hash` with many different strings and `${hash[key]}` still expands to `Ashwin`. — chepner, Apr 23 '13 at 20:12

score 12 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 21 '20 at 20:24

12

If you first use declare -A hash before the value assignments, then the script runs as expected.

It was tested using Bash 4.2.25.

edited Jul 21 '20 at 20:24

Peter Mortensen

answered Apr 23 '13 at 19:00

Alex

1 Answers1