An list in created by using the () characters. In this example, an empty list named fruit is created (the list contains no values).

fruit=()

In this example, an list named fruit is created, and the list contains different types of fruit.

fruit=(apple banana orange grapes)

The echo command will only print the first item in the list .

echo $fruit

In this example, the echo command would only print the first element in the list, "apple".

apple

Here is how to print every element in the list.

echo ${fruit[*]}

Which should return the following.

apple banana orange grapes

for loop

Or, a for loop can be used to iterate over each item in the list, like this.

for item in ${fruit[@]}; do
  echo $item
done

Which should return the following.

apple
banana
orange
grape

Index

Lists can also created using index numbers.

fruit[0]=apple
fruit[1]=banana
fruit[3]=orange
fruit[4]=grape

Individual list items can then be printed using the list index number.

echo ${fruit[0]}
echo ${fruit[1]}
echo ${fruit[2]}
echo ${fruit[3]}

Or like this.

echo ${fruit[0]} ${fruit[1]} ${fruit[2]} ${fruit[3]}

Or like this, to print every item in the list.

echo ${fruit[*]}

In this example, each piece of fruit will be printed.

apple
banana
orange
grape

Whitespace in elements

Let's say elements in the list may contain whitespace. In this example, "honeydew melon" contains whitespace. Double quote the elements in the list.

fruit=("apple" "banana" "orange" "grapes" "honeydew melon")

Also double quote the for loop.

for item in "${fruit[@]}"; do
  echo $item
done

In this example, each piece of fruit will be printed.

apple
banana
orange
grape
honeydew melon

Count the number of items in an list

This list contains four items.

fruits=(apple banana orange grapes)

The number of items in an list can be printed like this.

echo ${#fruit[*]}