bash print array

output.md

parr

Print a bash array by name

This uses eval, as that is the only way to reference an array that has its name stored in a variable while retaining indices (for associative and sparse arrays). More info on why indirection won't work for this here http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/006#Evaluating_indirect.2Freference_variables

Note: the output generated by this function is NOT safe to eval by the shell, this is just meant to inspect the contents of array, like var_dump in PHP, or console.dir in JavaScript

$ a=([0]="hello" [1]="how are" [5]="you")
$ parr a
(
        [0]=`hello`
        [1]=`how are`
        [5]=`you`
)

This will also work for associative arrays in Bash >= 4

$ parr BASH_ALIASES
(
        [urldecode]=`python -c 'import sys;import urllib as u;print u.unquote_plus(sys.stdin.read());'`
        [basher]=`~/.basher/basher`
        [joyentstillpaying]=`sdc-listmachines | json -a -c "state !== 'running'" name state`
        [gerp]=`grep`
        [lsdisks]=`kstat -lc disk :::class | field 3 :`
        [ls]=`ls -p --color=auto`
        [cdir]=`cd "${_%/*}"`
        [urlencode]=`python -c 'import sys;import urllib as u;print u.quote_plus(sys.stdin.read());'`
        [cpp2c]=`sed -e 's#//\(.*\)#/*\1 */#'`
        [externalip]=`curl -s http://ifconfig.me/ip`
        [l]=`ls -CF`
        [lsnpm]=`npm ls -g --depth=0`
        [chomd]=`chmod`
)

parr.bash

parr() {
 	local key value name
	for name in "$@"; do
		echo '('
		eval "
		for key in \"\${!$name[@]}\"; do
			value=\${$name[\$key]}
			echo -e \"\\t[\$key]=\\\`\$value\\\`\"
		done"
		echo ')'
	done
}
complete -A arrayvar parr

note: this is taken from https://github.com/bahamas10/bash-interactivity