Pass variable with spaces into array

Question

I'm parsing a HTML page with a bash script and extracting (with grep and sed)

    string number one
    string number two
    string number three
    etc

as $str in a parsing loop followed by

    array+=($str)

When the array is printed with

    for each in "${array[@]}"
    do
        echo "$each"
    done

I end up with

    string
    number
    one
    string
    number
    ....

Clearly spaces are being used as a delimiter when adding a new element in the array, but I can't seem to work out how to pass the entire string as an element!

Unquoted parameter expansions are wrong until proven otherwise. — chepner
– chepner, Commented Oct 22, 2016 at 14:09
I found your comment hilarious and very important to commit to memory @chepner, thank you for commenting. — Ari
– Ari, Commented Oct 23, 2016 at 4:55

user000001 · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-22 13:29:05Z

2

To avoid splitting each element of the array on whitespace, you should double quote your variable:

array+=("$str")

answered Oct 22, 2016 at 13:29

user000001

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1 Comment

Ari Over a year ago

I was certain I had tested quotation marks in testing, apparently not. Thanks for the help!

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