bash how to add to array

If you want to add new item to the end of array without specifying an index use:

array=()
array+=("first")
echo ${array[@]}

Output: first_item

If your array is sequential, you can use "#" to get index for new item:

array[${#array[@]}]="second_item"
echo ${array[@]}

Output: first_item second_item

Note "${#array[@]}" gets the length of the array.

Another option is assign to the array all of its items and append the new one as in the following example:

array=(${array[@]} "third_item")
echo ${array[@]}

Output: first_item second_item third_item

It 's good practice to enclose array items with quotes, when they could contain white space characters.

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