How to rename an associative array in Bash?

Question

I need to loop over an associative array and drain the contents of it to a temp array (and perform some update to the value).

The leftover contents of the first arra

Answer 1

Following both the suggestions of glenn jackman and ffeldhaus, you can build a function which might become handy:

function cp_hash
{
    local original_hash_name="$1"
    local copy_hash_name="$2"

    local __copy__=$(declare -p $original_hash_name);
    eval declare -A __copy__="${__copy__:$(expr index "${__copy__}" =)}";

    for i in "${!__copy__[@]}"
    do
        eval ${copy_hash_name}[$i]=${__copy__[$i]}
    done
}

Usage:

declare -A copy_hash_name
cp_hash 'original_hash_name' 'copy_hash_name'

Example:

declare -A hash
hash[hello]=world
hash[ab]=cd

declare -A copy
cp_hash 'hash' 'copy'

for i in "${!copy[@]}"
do
    echo "key  : $i | value: ${copy[$i]}"
done

Will output

key  : ab | value: cd
key  : hello | value: world