i guess i don't know what it is. my thought of an array was a way to use multiple values for one variable name. well, I wanted to use your code of reading 2 files (lists) and using the variables on a conditional basis to print a message. (won't go any further, due to cross-posting).

ok, so in this part:

Code:

i=0
exec < file1
while read array[i] ; do
      ((i=i+1))

done

exec <file2
while read entry ; do
      i=0
      found=0
      while ((i<${#array[@]})) ; do
            if [[ $entry = ${array[i]} ]] ; then
                 found=1
                 break
                 ((i=i+1))
            fi
      done
      if ((found)) ; then
            echo $entry is in file1
      else
            echo $entry is not in file1
      fi
done