Bash function to print array on multiple lines

Question

I wrote this function to print arrays in bash without using that horrible bracket syntax:

printarr()
{
     arr=$1      # first argument
     printf '%s\n' "${arr[@]}"
}

Does not work as expected.

It will print out the first array you feed it, but then if you feed it another array it will print out the first one again.

I call it like this

$ arr=( "single" "line" "arr" )
$ printarr $arr
$ multiarr=( "multi"
> "line"
> "arr")
$ printarr $multiarr

GNU bash, version 3.2.25(1)-release

Related, maybe even a dupe: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1063347/passing-arrays-as-parameters-in-bash — user000001, Nov 14 '16 at 17:47
It is working now, I think what happened is I called the function with a parameter that didn't have the dollar sign in front of it one time like `printarr arr` — Kellen Stuart, Nov 14 '16 at 17:50

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 14 '16 at 17:46

If you don't want to use brackets when sending the array to the function, send just its name and use indirect expansion:

#! /bin/bash
printarr()
{
     arr=$1'[@]'
     printf '%s\n' "${!arr}"
}

arr1=( "single" "line" "arr with spaces" )
arr2=( "SINGLE" "LINE" "ARR WITH SPACES" )

printarr arr1
printarr arr2

Bash function to print array on multiple lines

1 Answers1