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Storing multiple file paths in a variable

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# 1  
Old 04-10-2013
Apple Storing multiple file paths in a variable
I am working on a script for Mac OS X that, among many other things, gets a list of all the installed Applications. I am pulling the list from the system_profiler command and formatting it using grep and awk. The problem is that I want to be able to use each result individually later in the script.

Here is an example of what I have:
Code:
system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType | grep -w /Applications* | grep -v /Applications/Utilities* | awk '{ print substr($0, index($0,$2)) }'

I get a list like this:
/Applications/Safari.app
/Applications/Mail.app
/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Microsoft Word.app
etc.
How can I store all these results so that I can use them individually later?
# 2  
Old 04-10-2013
Put it into an array
Code:
arr=(a b c d)
echo ${arr[0]}
a

--ahamed
# 3  
Old 04-10-2013
Apple
ahamed101,

The number of results I get back will vary from computer to computer, don't I need to know the size of the array before I can use it?

---------- Post updated at 04:06 PM ---------- Previous update was at 03:58 PM ----------

I think I figured it out, but if someone has something better I would like to know. In the echo $OUTPUT line I can do whatever I want with the information.

Code:
OLD_IFS=$IFS
IFS=$'\n'
for OUTPUT in `system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType | grep -w /Applications* | grep -v /Applications/Utilities* | awk '{ print substr($0, index($0,$2)) }'`
do
	echo $OUTPUT
done
IFS=$OLD_IFS

# 4  
Old 04-10-2013
You dont need to know the array size upfront.
Code:
arr=(a b c d)
for val in ${arr[@]}
do 
  echo $val
done

a
b
c
d

To know the array size
Code:
echo ${#arr[@]}
4

HTH

--ahamed
Last edited by ahamed101; 04-10-2013 at 09:00 PM..
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