How to print two arrays side by side with bash script?

Question

I couldn't find a good and simple answer to this question neither on google nor here on stackoverflow.

Basically I have two arrays that I need to print into the terminal side by side since one array is a list of terms and the other the terms's definitions. Does anyone know a good way of doing this?

Thanks in advance.

Use an associative array?

jordanm
– jordanm

2013-05-12 18:29:09 +00:00
Commented May 12, 2013 at 18:29 — jordanm
– jordanm, Commented May 12, 2013 at 18:29

rici · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-13 01:28:02Z

13

Here's a "one-liner":

paste <(printf "%s\n" "${terms[@]}") <(printf "%s\n" "${defs[@]}")

This will create lines consisting of a term and a def separated by a tab, which might not, strictly speaking, be "side by side" (since they're not really in columns). If you knew how wide the first column should be, you could use something like:

paste -d' ' <(printf "%-12.12s\n" "${terms[@]}") <(printf "%s\n" "${defs[@]}")

which will pad or truncate the terms to 12 characters exactly, and then put a space between the two columns instead of a tab (-d' ').

answered May 13, 2013 at 1:28

rici

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2 Comments

Herpes Free Engineer Over a year ago

For those who use shell in POSIX mode: unix.stackexchange.com/questions/151911/…

Herpes Free Engineer Over a year ago

And pure Bash way: stackoverflow.com/a/32998279/3393574

jordanm · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-12 18:32:42Z

9

You can use a C-style for loop to accomplish this, assuming both arrays are the same length:

for ((i=0; i<=${#arr1[@]}; i++)); do
    printf '%s %s\n' "${arr1[i]}" "${arr2[i]}"
done

answered May 12, 2013 at 18:32

jordanm

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2 Comments

oguz ismail Over a year ago

Wouldn't it be easier to loop through array indices? Like i in "${!arr1[@]}"?

jordanm Over a year ago

@oguzismail yes, and it would better handle sparse arrays

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