Pipe text from a file into an array

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi Guys I have a question about filling up an array

I have a file called USER_FILE.txt
it contains the following:

Real Name:Thomas A Username:THOMAS_A
Real Name:Thomas B Username:THOMAS_B
Real Name:Thomas C Username:THOMAS_C
Real Name:Thomas D Username:THOMAS_D
Real Name:Thomas E Username:THOMAS_E

I want to put this data into an array
here is what I am doing:

set -a User_array [ < USER_FILE.txt ]

however I do not believe this is working as when I run

echo ${User_array[0]}

nothing appears

Basically I need
echo ${User_array[0]}
to contain:
Real Name:Thomas A Username:THOMAS_A

echo ${User_array[1]}
to contain:
Real Name:Thomas B Username:THOMAS_B

echo ${User_array[2]}
to contain:
Real Name:Thomas C Username:THOMAS_C

etc etc

what am I doing wrong?

Thanks G

2

Hope this helps:

typeset -i line=0
typeset -i max=0
while read buf[line]
do
   (( line = line + 1 ))
done < foo
max=line # Get top of array

# print array
line=0
while (( line < max )) 
do
	echo "${buf[line]}"
   (( line = line + 1 ))
done
3 
c=0; while read line; do array[c]=`echo "$line"`; let c=$c+1; done < infile
echo ${array[1]}
Real Name:Thomas B Username:THOMAS_B
echo ${array[3]}
Real Name:Thomas D Username:THOMAS_D
4

Thank you for your reply

But I am a unix Novice

I am having trouble understanding your code and incorporating it into a solution that I can use.

I have just tried this:

set -A array $(<USER_FILE.txt)
echo ${array[*]}

and it works to an extent, it creates an additional array value for each word rather than each line.

I can modify to the file USER_FILE.txt to include some identifier at the end like a ',' or something

5

Your code has worked perfectly

thank you
G.

6

1 last question

I now wish to print out the contents of the array using a loop.

I'm using

my_array_size=${#array[*]}
i=0; while [ $my_array_size > $i ]; do echo $i ${array[$i]}; let i=$i+1; done

however it will not stop at the last entry in the loop. It goes on to print 1024 empty files numbered 0-1023

what am I doing wrong?

7

Explaination:

 
### declare some integer variables...
typeset -i line=0
typeset -i max=0
 
### read data file directly into the array...
 
while read buf[line]
do
### increment array index by one...
   (( line = line + 1 ))
### ... while reading from file 'foo'
done < foo
 
max=line # Get top of array
 
# print array
line=0
### while line index is less than maximum number of lines. . . . 
while (( line < max )) 
do
### print and increment array index.
    echo "${buf[line]}"
   (( line = line + 1 ))
done
8

Or to stay with my example:
Since you have the counter $c already, you can just use this to check how many elements are in the array. Due to the spaces in the elements #array will give a wrong value.

#fill the array:
c=0; while read line; do array[c]=`echo "$line"`; let c=$c+1; done < infile

#print the array elements:
x=0; while (( $x < $c )); do echo ${array[$x]}; let x=$x+1; done
Real Name:Thomas A Username:THOMAS_A
Real Name:Thomas B Username:THOMAS_B
Real Name:Thomas C Username:THOMAS_C
Real Name:Thomas D Username:THOMAS_D
Real Name:Thomas E Username:THOMAS_E
9

Thank you kindly Zazzon and Quirk!