alternative to readarray, because it does not work on mac os x

Question

I have a varsValues.txt file

cat varsValues.txt
aa=13.7
something=20.6
countries=205
world=1
languages=2014
people=7.2
oceans=3.4

And I wou

Answer 1

Let's start with this:

$ awk -F'=' '{values[$1]=$2} END{print values["people"]}' file
7.2

$ awk -F'=' '{values[$1]=$2} END{for (name in values) print name, values[name]}' file
languages 2014
oceans 3.4
world 1
something 20.6
countries 205
people 7.2
aa 13.7

Now - what else do you need to do?