[SOLVED] Bash script Array creation oddity

[grg]

I'm hoping someone can explain this phenomenon for me.

I have other options for the script where I was going to use this style. This is just curiosity.

Creating an array with a hand type list of [index]="item with spaces" works fine.

Substituting a variable for the typed list produces a completely different result.

Script:

#!/bin/bash

dataString='[0]="one" [1]="two" [2]="three" [3]="four, only" [4]="five"'

echo
echo "manually creating dataArray"
dataArray=( [0]="one" [1]="two" [2]="three" [3]="four, only" [4]="five"  )

echo
echo "ouputing dataArray:"
for (( i = 0 ; i < ${#dataArray[@]} ; i++ )); do
  echo -e "\tdataArray[$i] = ${dataArray[i]}"
done


echo
echo "creating dataArray2 from \$dataString=$dataString"
dataArray2=( $dataString )

echo
echo "ouputing dataArray2:"
for (( i = 0 ; i < ${#dataArray2[@]} ; i++ )); do
  echo -e "\tdataArray2[$i] = ${dataArray2[i]}"
done

Output:

manually creating dataArray

ouputing dataArray:
        dataArray[0] = one
        dataArray[1] = two
        dataArray[2] = three
        dataArray[3] = four, only
        dataArray[4] = five

creating dataArray2 from $dataString=[0]="one" [1]="two" [2]="three" [3]="four, only" [4]="five"

ouputing dataArray2:
        dataArray2[0] = [0]="one"
        dataArray2[1] = [1]="two"
        dataArray2[2] = [2]="three"
        dataArray2[3] = [3]="four,
        dataArray2[4] = only"
        dataArray2[5] = [4]="five"

Ideas?

[scm]

You need to let the shell evaluate, not just substitute, your "from-variable" assignment:

eval dataArray2=( $dataString )

does the trick nicely.

[grg]

Thank you, that will make for cleaner code than the alternatives.

I feel a bit dense for not finding it, especially since I'd briefly pondered some sort of "Evaluate This" command.