Creating bash variables from a files in a folder

Issue

I have a bash script (list.sh) that lists files in a folder and assigns each filename to a bash variable:

#/bin/bash

c=0
for file in *; do
    varr$c="$file";
    c=$((c+1));
done

When I call this from a bash terminal with:

source list.sh

I get:

bash: varr0=07 Get the Balance Right!.mp3: command not found...
bash: varr1=190731_10150450783260347_1948451_n.jpg: command not found...
bash: varr2=199828_10150450907505347_7125763_n.jpg: command not found...
bash: varr3=2022-07-31_19-30.png: command not found...
bash: varr4=2022-08-02_12-06.png: command not found...
bash: varr5=246915_10152020928305567_1284271814_n.jpg: command not found...

I don’t know how to put quotes around the file text itself, so that each varr(x) creates itself as a variable in the parent bash script, ie:

varr0="07 Get the Balance Right!.mp3"

Solution

It’s not a "quote around the text" issue, it’s the variable declaration varr$c that’s not working. You should be using declare instead.

This script solves your problem :

#/bin/bash

c=0
for file in *; do
    declare varr$c=$file;
    c=$((c+1));
done

Answered By – bdelphin

This Answer collected from stackoverflow, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5 , cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0