Comments on: bash: variable variables

By: xOneca

xOneca — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:09:36 +0000

When scripting for dash you don't have the ${!var} option, so you must use the "eval echo" trick.

I have come with a simplified version of yours, omitting an "echo":

eval echo \$$tits

or, to set a variable:

value=`eval echo \$$tits`

pgl — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 10:07:34 +0000

That's right Rob - that's the first example I put at the top of the post. The others are just for completeness really.

Rob Thomas — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 05:57:51 +0000

Actually, this is a bit out of date, and version of bash since version 3 (eg, after about Fedora 8 I think) can do this:

#!/bin/bash

foo=wibble
wibble=works

echo $foo
echo ${!foo}

Curly braces and an exclamation mark is a lot more intuitive than the old eval $$ stuff.

Jni — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 06:13:54 +0000

Wow... you're among top google results and you just saved me hours of work... thanks, great post!

manky.turd — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 06:28:46 +0000

nice work balls, this is bangin!