Shell Programming and Scripting

i just started learning arrays and found this example on the net:

Code:

for (( i = 0 ; i < ${#names[@]} ; i++ ))
do
  echo ${names[$i]}
   done

However, even though I can

Code:

echo ${#names[@]}

I am unable to get the increment to work. I have tried eliminating spaces and changing brackets and nothing seems to work. I am using the bash shell. I would really like to get this to work so I can understand more about arrays. I am getting the message:

. syntax error at line 1: `(' unexpected

Anybody have any ideas on how to make this work? They are greatly appreciated.

I tried your loop, and it worked fine for me (GNU bash, version 4.2.37). What bash version do you use?

I think you are using an early bash shell (version 3) or other shells like ksh. Meaning: that example will not work in your environment.

If so try:

Code:

cnt=0
while [ $cnt -lt ${#names[*]} ]
do
      echo "${names[$cnt]}
      cnt=$(( $cnt + 1 ))
done

This is the version:

[CODE] bash --version[CODE]
GNU bash, version 2.03.0(1)-release (sparc-sun-solaris)
Copyright 1998 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This looks old!

---------- Post updated at 02:12 PM ---------- Previous update was at 01:59 PM ----------

That worked! At first I still got an error, but it was due to my not ending the quotes. It is all working now, thanks again Jim.