Associative arrays are local by default

Question

Associative arrays seem to be local by default when declared inside a function body, where they should be global. The following code

#!/bin/bash

f() {
    decla         


        

Answer 1

This example declares a global associative array variable inside a function, in bash.

set -euf +x -o pipefail # There is no place for implicit errors in this script.

function init_arrays(){
    # FYI. Multiple array declarations are not a problem. You can invoke it multiple times.

    # The "-gA" switch is the trick for the global array declaration inside a function.
    declare -gA my_var
}

function do_work(){
    init_arrays

    my_var[$1]=OPPA
}

do_work aa

echo ${my_var[aa]}
echo It is expected to get OPPA value printed above

Tested on GNU bash, version 4.4...

Important notes.
The declare -A command doesn't actually create an associative array immediately; it just sets an attribute on a variable name which allows you to assign to the name as an associative array. The array itself doesn't exist until the first assignment (!!!).

(I wanted to see a complete working example in this thread, sorry.)