How to store multiple lines of output in separate variables?

Question

$ external_tool | grep -iE "id1|id2"
id1 Z55Hsh1abm
id2 sFXxu4KzkJbXab08UT

I have to store each id1 and id2 in separate variables mentioned below without executing external_tool twice. Below is how I am doing now but that's not acceptable.

export VAR1=$(external_tool | grep -i id1 | awk '{print $2}')
export VAR2=$(external_tool | grep -i id2 | awk '{print $2}')

Desired output from above should be

$ echo $VAR1
Z55Hsh1abm
$ echo $VAR2
sFXxu4KzkJbXab08UT

How do I store them in separate variables and export them in env var?

So what is your problem? What is client_secret and where is id2 gone? — tshiono
– tshiono, Commented Dec 1, 2020 at 3:42
sorry @tshiono its id2 really , my only problem is I can't run the tool again (meaning external_tool can only be run once) so I need to be able to get the output in the desired format. — unbox-us
– unbox-us, Commented Dec 1, 2020 at 3:51
Thank you for the prompt feedback. Your requirement is understood. Would you please test my answer? — tshiono
– tshiono, Commented Dec 1, 2020 at 4:04

John Kugelman · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-01 04:49:32Z

3

Would you please try the following:

#!/bin/bash

while read -r id val; do
    if [[ $id = "id1" ]]; then
        export var1=$val
    elif [[ $id = "id2" ]]; then
        export var2=$val
    fi
done < <(external_tool | grep -iE "id1|id2")

echo "$var1"
echo "$var2"

The basic concept is to keep the id's as the output of the command and switch the variable to assign depending on the value of id.
The <(command) expression is a process substitution and you can redirect the output of the command to the while loop.

Please note that it is not recommended to use uppercases as a normal variable. That is why I've modified them as var1 and var2.

edited Dec 1, 2020 at 4:49

John Kugelman

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answered Dec 1, 2020 at 3:57

tshiono

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Comments

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-01 04:33:39Z

2

You may get this done in a single call to external utility using process substitution using awk:

read -r var1 var2 < <(external_tool | awk -v ORS=' ' '$1~/^(id1|id2)$/{print $2}')

# check variables
declare -p var1 var2

answered Dec 1, 2020 at 4:33

anubhava

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1 Comment

unbox-us Over a year ago

This is also a acceptable solution in my case , I changed the last declare to got them in my own vars. but works perfectly in single line.

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