['']='': bad array subscript when declaring empty string key with empty value

Question

How can I declare an associative array with something like

declare -A ENV_JOBS=( [""]="" ["staging"]="staging-job-name ["dev"]="dev-job-name" )

So whenever it gets an empty string it'll return empty value?

Currently the error message bad array subscript shows up when I declare and access with ${ENV_JOBS[""]}

My usage is to do something like "job-name${ENV_JOBS[$ENV]}" to be able to compute all env job names.

This is a known limitation of bash, see lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-bash/2019-09/msg00029.html — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Aug 28, 2023 at 21:35

Barmar · Accepted Answer · 2023-08-28 21:39:35Z

1

This is a limitation of bash. To work around it, add an extra character so it will never be empty.

declare -A ENV_JOBS=( ["@"]="" ["@staging"]="staging-job-name" ["@dev"]="dev-job-name" )
jobname=job-name${ENV_JOBS["@$ENV"]}

answered Aug 28, 2023 at 21:39

Barmar

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1 Comment

Yen Over a year ago

Thanks, yes the background context is bash. Just found that zsh (my cli but not scripting) is able to do something like declare -A ENV_JOBS=( [""]="" ). If people scripting in zsh might find it helpful.

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