8

I'm trying to read a list of files from stdin, with each file delimited by a newline, however I'm noticing that only the first element is getting appended to the list. I noticed this by simply entering two strings and then q. Can anyone explain why?

files=()
read input

while [ "$input" != "q" ] ; 
do
    files+=( "$input" )
    read input
done

for f  in $files ; 
do
    echo "the list of files is:"
    echo "$f"
    echo "The length of files is ${#files} " #prints 1, even if 2+ are entered
done
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2
  • 2
    In addition to the fine answers below, the number of elements is ${#files[@]} Commented Nov 4, 2014 at 16:26
  • 1
    For your future convenience, shellcheck automatically points this out. Commented Nov 4, 2014 at 16:48

1 Answer 1

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10

Actually your files+=( "$input" ) expression is adding elements to your array but you are not iterating it correctly.

Your last loop should be:

for f in "${files[@]}"; do
    echo "element is: $f"
done

Test (thanks to @fedorqui)

$ a+=(1)
$ a+=("hello")
$ a+=(3)
$ for i in "${a[@]}"; do echo "$i"; done
1
hello
3
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7 Comments

Fast! I added some explanation, feel free to add it to your answer if you find it useful :)
Thanks I have added most of it to my answer to make it more clear.
Thanks, I suppose that $files refers to the head of the array?
Yes that is true, $files gets you first element from array.
Yes, $var is equivalent to ${var[0]}.
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