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Sorting An Array
Just as with spreadsheets, it is often necessary to sort the values in a column of data. The shell has no direct way of doing this, but it's not hard to do with a little coding:
#!/bin/bash
# array-sort: Sort an array a=(f e d c b a)
echo "Original array: ${a[@]}"
a_sorted=($(for i in "${a[@]}"; do echo $i; done | sort)) echo "Sorted array: ${a_sorted[@]}"
#!/bin/bash
# array-sort: Sort an array a=(f e d c b a)
echo "Original array: ${a[@]}"
a_sorted=($(for i in "${a[@]}"; do echo $i; done | sort)) echo "Sorted array: ${a_sorted[@]}"
When executed, the script produces this:
[me@linuxbox ~]$ array-sort Original array: f e d c b a Sorted array: a b c d e f
[me@linuxbox ~]$ array-sort Original array: f e d c b a Sorted array: a b c d e f
The script operates by copying the contents of the original array (a) into a second array (a_sorted) with a tricky piece of command substitution. This basic technique can be used to perform many kinds of operations on the array by changing the design of the pipeline.