Multi-Array in Bash

Well kind of… When you are used to working in Python or any real language then Bash arrays are pretty lame. But it can help in a few circumstances when you have to use Bash.

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# cat bash_array.sh
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#!/bin/bash
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# Array pretending to be a Pythonic dictionary
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ARRAY_DETAILS=( "10.51.20.63:Host1:Solaris"
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                "10.51.20.80:Host2:Linux"
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                "10.20.50.11:Host3:Windows" )
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for hostDetails in "${ARRAY_DETAILS[@]}" ; do
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  arrIN=(${hostDetails//:/ })
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  IP=${arrIN[0]}
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  NAME=${arrIN[1]}
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  TYPE=${arrIN[2]}
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  printf "Hostname %s with IP %s and is type %s.\n" "$NAME" "$IP" "$TYPE"
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done

And the result looks like this:

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Hostname Host1 with IP 10.51.20.63 and is type Solaris.
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Hostname Host2 with IP 10.51.20.80 and is type Linux.
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Hostname Host3 with IP 10.20.50.11 and is type Windows.