Loops


Iterating a predefined number of times

BASH offersin {0..5} style of loops which are useful if you just want to iterate e.g.: 10 times and (optionally) do something with the index variable:

for i in {0..9}; do echo "i=$i" done

Indexed for loops

If you need a proper indexed for loop where the start and stop conditions must be read from a variable, or you want the step to be different from one, you'll be happy to learn that BASH has a loop constructs which looks very similiar to C-style for-loops.

apple_array=("red" "yellow" "green")

for (( i = 0; i < ${#apple_array[@]}; i++ )); do
  echo "Apple number" $i "is" ${apple_array[$i]}
done

Apple number 0 is red Apple number 1 is yellow Apple number 2 is green


Licensed under CC BY Creative Commons License ~ ✉ torstein.k.johansen @ gmail ~ 🐘 @skybert@emacs.ch ~ 🐦 @torsteinkrause