Each string in "list_of_arrays", is the name of an array I need to pass to the 'declare' command line.
Something like:
for arrayname in "${list_of_arrays[@]}"; do
declare -A idx=(["$arrayname[0]"]=0 ["$arrayname[1]"]=0 ["$arrayname[2]"]=0 ...)
done
How do I make this work for any number of strings? Each string/array name will always be unique.
You'll need to use indirect variables to accomplish this:
foo=(a b c)
baz=(g h i)
bar=(d e f)
list_of_arrays=(foo bar baz)
for aname in "${list_of_arrays[@]}"; do
unset idx; declare -A idx
tmp="${aname}[@]"
for value in "${!tmp}"; do
idx[$value]=0
done
# print it out to verify
declare -p idx
done
declare -A idx='([a]="0" [b]="0" [c]="0" )'
declare -A idx='([d]="0" [e]="0" [f]="0" )'
declare -A idx='([g]="0" [h]="0" [i]="0" )'
Well, all of the above is wrong, as the OP wants the array names to be the keys of the idx array. As mentioned in the comments:
tmp=( "${list_of_arrays[@]/#/[}" )
tmp=( "${tmp[@]/%/]=0}" )
eval declare -A idx=( "${tmp[@]}" )
Although I would go with the much less clever:
declare -A idx
for aname in "${list_of_arrays[@]}"; do idx["$aname"]=0; done
declare -p idx
declare -A idx=( "${tmp[@]}" ) ==> bash: idx: "${tmp[@]}": must use subscript when assigning associative array, so you need eval declare -A idx=( "${tmp[@]}" )declare -A idx='([bar]="0" [baz]="0" [foo]="0" )' == do you want the keys if the idx array to be the array names, or the array values?