Array inside an array

UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users
1

hi All,

I have a array as follows,

array1=("xx" "abc" "def" "xyz")
and each array1[index] is also storing some array values, like

array1[1]=abc
and abc=("a" "b" "c") etcetera etcetra.........

Note : each subarray under array1 have index 3 i.e. it can max contain 3 values

if i echo ${abc[index]} [ where index is 1,2,3...] it works fine.

but if i loop thru it's not printing the values, can anybody help me solving this thru loop,

my loop goes like this

cnt=1
total_Array=${#array1[]}
no_loop_thru=${#abc[]}

while [ $cnt -lt $total_Array ]
do
srch_fld=`echo ${array1[$cnt]}`
j=1
while [ $j -le $no_loop_thru ]
do
#var1=`$srch_fld[$j]`
#echo ${var1}
echo ${srch_fld[$j]}
j=`expr $j + 1`
done
cnt=`expr $cnt + 1`
done

can anybody suggest any improvement on this......LOOP

2 
$ cat arrayloop
#! /usr/local/bin/bash

abc=(a b c)
def=(d e f)
ghi=(g h i)
array1=(abc def ghi)
cnt=0
total_Array=${#array1[*]}
no_loop_thru=${#abc[*]}

while [ $cnt -lt $total_Array ] ; do
        srch_fld=${array1[$cnt]}
        j=0
        while [ $j -le $no_loop_thru ] ; do
                eval var1=\${$srch_fld[$j]}
                echo ${var1}
                ((j=j+1))
        done
        ((cnt=cnt+1))
done
exit 0
$ ./arrayloop
a
b
c

d
e
f

g
h
i

$
3

hey i got alternative method as follows,
while [ $j -le $no_loop_thru ] ; do
var1=$srch_fld[$j]
echo ${!var1}
((j=j+1))
done

4

The question remains same, but now the representation changed,

let

abc=(a b c)
def=(d e f)
ghi=(g h i)
array1=(abc def ghi)

now thing is in sub array i know the content or size, let here it is 3
so i want my o/p should come like
abc(1)=a
def(1)=d
ghi(1)=g
then
abc(2)=b
def(2)=e
ghi(2)=h

etcetera etcetera.......

can anybody help me out to achieve it ?????

5

The first element of an array is 0, not 1.
var1=$srch_fld[$j]
echo "${srch_fld}(${j}) = ${!var1}"
will give you the correct indices. If you want to pretend that the first index is 1, you could use:
echo "${srch_fld}($((j+1))) = ${!var1}"

6

Modifying the code from Perderabo, how would you handle different-sized arrays in the inner while loop? For example, let's change the code to be:

$ cat arrayloop
#! /usr/local/bin/bash

abc=(a b c x y)
def=(d e f z)
ghi=(g h i)
array1=(abc def ghi)
cnt=0
total_Array=${#array1[*]}

while [ $cnt -lt $total_Array ] ; do
        srch_fld=${array1[$cnt]}
        j=0
        while [ $j -le <????> ] ; do
                eval var1=\${$srch_fld[$j]}
                echo ${var1}
                ((j=j+1))
        done
        ((cnt=cnt+1))
done
exit 0
$ ./arrayloop
a
b
c
x
y

d
e
f
z

g
h
i

$

We can't use the original no_loop_thru variable since the arrays are of varying length. I realize we need to get the length of srch_fld but I'm unable to get the syntax right ...