1. Indexed array
2. associative array

An element of a ksh array variable is referenced by a subscript. The value of all non-negative subscripts must be in the range of 0 through 4,194,303.

Syntax

You can define array as follows either as an associative array or to be an indexed array.

Syntax for an indexed array

arrayName[0]=value1
arrayName[1]=value2
arrayName[3]=value3

OR use set command as follows:

set -A arrayName value1 value2 value3

Syntax for an associative array

typeset -A employees
employees[sirname]="value1"
employees[firstname]="value"

OR

set -A arrayName val1 val2 val3

Examples for ksh indexed array

For example, create an array called characters with three values as follows:

set -A characters Mugen Jin Fuu

To print first value, enter:

echo ${characters[0]}

To print 3rd and last value, enter:

echo ${characters[2]}

To print all values, enter:

echo ${characters[@]}

To count number of items in an array called characters, enter:

echo ${#characters[@]}

You can use for loop as follows to iterate through all values:

for i in ${characters[@]}; do echo "Samurai Champloo character - $i"; done

Sample outputs:

Samurai Champloo character - Mugen
Samurai Champloo character - Jin
Samurai Champloo character - Fuu

You can add two more items as follows to exiting array:

characters[3]="Sunflower-Samurai"
characters[4]="Detective-Manzo"

Sample Shell Script

#!/bin/ksh
# set array called nameservers
set -A nameservers 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.5 202.54.1.5
 
# print all name servers
for i in ${nameservers[@]}
do
	echo $i
done

Sample outputs:

Ksh associative arrays examples

## set associative array ##
typeset -A ns 
 
## Add values ##
ns[home]="192.168.1.254" ## home dns server ip 
ns[isp]="123.1.2.254"    ## my isp dns server ip
ns[google]="8.8.8.8"     ## google public dns server ip
 
## Okay, display values #
print "${ns[home]}"
print "${ns[isp]}"
print "${ns[google]}"
 
## Count  number of items in an array #
print "${!ns[@]}"
 
## Use for loop to print all items in an array##
for i in "${!ns[@]}"
do
   echo "ns[$i] value is ${ns[$i]}"
done

Sample outputs:

ns[google] value is 8.8.8.8
ns[home] value is 192.168.1.254
ns[isp] value is 123.1.2.254