How do you append to an indirect parameter expansion of an array in BASH?

Question

I know you can create an indirect parameter expansion to an array like so:

var1=\"target\"
var2=\"arrayname\"
targetarrayname=( \"one\" \"two\" \"three\" )
b         


        

Answer 1

You can do it with printf

arrayname=()
arrayvariable=arrayname

printf -v $arrayvariable[1] "test"
echo "${arrayname[1]}"

To fill in whole array you can use a for loop

arrayname=()
arrayvariable=arrayname

for i in {0..5}; {
    item="$arrayvariable[$i]"
    printf -v $item "test$i"
    echo "${!item}"
}

Note that quotes are not necessary around var name in printf command because var name can't have spaces, if you try to add var with space in name it'll give you this error

$ printf -v 'test 1' 'sef'
bash: printf: `test 1': not a valid identifier