Remove an element from a Bash array

Question

I need to remove an element from an array in bash shell. Generally I'd simply do:

array=("${(@)array:#<element to remove>}")

Unfortunately the element I want to remove is a variable so I can't use the previous command. Down here an example:

array+=(pluto)
array+=(pippo)
delete=(pluto)
array( ${array[@]/$delete} ) -> but clearly doesn't work because of {}

Any idea?

Answer 1

http://wiki.bash-hackers.org/syntax/pe#substring_removal

${PARAMETER#PATTERN} # remove from beginning

${PARAMETER##PATTERN} # remove from the beginning, greedy match

${PARAMETER%PATTERN} # remove from the end

${PARAMETER%%PATTERN} # remove from the end, greedy match

In order to do a full remove element, you have to do an unset command with an if statement. If you don't care about removing prefixes from other variables or about supporting whitespace in the array, then you can just drop the quotes and forget about for loops.

See example below for a few different ways to clean up an array.

options=("foo" "bar" "foo" "foobar" "foo bar" "bars" "bar")

# remove bar from the start of each element
options=("${options[@]/#"bar"}")
# options=("foo" "" "foo" "foobar" "foo bar" "s" "")

# remove the complete string "foo" in a for loop
count=${#options[@]}
for ((i = 0; i < count; i++)); do
   if [ "${options[i]}" = "foo" ] ; then
      unset 'options[i]'
   fi
done
# options=(  ""   "foobar" "foo bar" "s" "")

# remove empty options
# note the count variable can't be recalculated easily on a sparse array
for ((i = 0; i < count; i++)); do
   # echo "Element $i: '${options[i]}'"
   if [ -z "${options[i]}" ] ; then
      unset 'options[i]'
   fi
done
# options=("foobar" "foo bar" "s")

# list them with select
echo "Choose an option:"
PS3='Option? '
select i in "${options[@]}" Quit
 do
    case $i in 
       Quit) break ;;
       *) echo "You selected \"$i\"" ;;
    esac
 done

Output

Choose an option:
1) foobar
2) foo bar
3) s
4) Quit
Option? 

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

In ZSH this is dead easy (note this uses more bash compatible syntax than necessary where possible for ease of understanding):

# I always include an edge case to make sure each element
# is not being word split.
start=(one two three 'four 4' five)
work=(${(@)start})

idx=2
val=${work[idx]}

# How to remove a single element easily.
# Also works for associative arrays (at least in zsh)
work[$idx]=()

echo "Array size went down by one: "
[[ $#work -eq $(($#start - 1)) ]] && echo "OK"

echo "Array item "$val" is now gone: "
[[ -z ${work[(r)$val]} ]] && echo OK

echo "Array contents are as expected: "
wanted=("${start[@]:0:1}" "${start[@]:2}")
[[ "${(j.:.)wanted[@]}" == "${(j.:.)work[@]}" ]] && echo "OK"

echo "-- array contents: start --"
print -l -r -- "-- $#start elements" ${(@)start}
echo "-- array contents: work --"
print -l -r -- "-- $#work elements" "${work[@]}"

Results:

Array size went down by one:
OK
Array item two is now gone:
OK
Array contents are as expected:
OK
-- array contents: start --
-- 5 elements
one
two
three
four 4
five
-- array contents: work --
-- 4 elements
one
three
four 4
five