bash - Creating Arrays From Unknown Number of External Lists -

this question related importing values text file (similar 1 of previous ones), added complexity (the more learn bash scripting more challenging becomes)

the goal: create array of day_.... on each outer loop iteration. i'm trying assuming no knowledge of how many day_... lists exist in *.txt file.

the issue: @ moment inner loop iterates once (should iterate number of elements on monday. and, also, i'm using my_sub_dom=$( sed 's/=.*//' weekly.txt ) number of lists/arrays in weekly.txt , filter ones contain day.

bash script:

#!/bin/bash  source weekly.txt  declare -a my_sub_dom day=( ${monday[*]} ) my_sub_dom=$( sed 's/=.*//' weekly.txt ) # construct list of number of of  lists in text file #echo "${my_sub_dom}" counter=0 main_counter=0 in "${day[@]}"     let main_counter=main_counter+1     j in "${my_sub_dom[@]}"         #       echo "$j"             if grep -q "day" "${my_sub_dom}"                                 echo "$j"                     sub_array_name="${my_sub_dom[counter]}" # storing list name                     sub_array_content=( ${sub_array_name[*]} )                     echo "${sub_array_content}"             else                     echo "no"             fi             let counter=counter+1     done     echo "$counter"     counter=0 

done echo "$main_counter"

text file format:

day_mon=( "google" "yahoo" "amazon" ) day_tu=( "cnn" "msnbc" "google" ) day_wed=( "nytimes" "fidelity" "stackoverflow" ) monday= ( "one" "two" "three" ) .... 

script output:

grep: day_mon day_tu day_wed monday: no such file or directory no 1 grep: day_mon day_tu day_wed monday: no such file or directory no 1 grep: day_mon day_tu day_wed monday: no such file or directory no 1 3 

please let me know if you'd other information.... , appreciate input in matter, i've been trying couple of days now.

thank you

given file weekly.txt containing

day_mon=( "google" "yahoo" "amazon" ) day_tu=( "cnn" "msnbc" "google" ) day_wed=( "nytimes" "fidelity" "stackoverflow" ) monday=( "one" "two" "three" ) 

you can loop through each array named day_-something with

#!/bin/bash  # set arrays defined in file source weekly.txt  # variables prefixed "day_" (bash 4) name in "${!day_@}"   echo "the contents of array $name is: "   # use indirection expand array   arrayexpansion="$name[@]"   value in "${!arrayexpansion}"       echo "-- $value"   done   echo done 

this results in:

the contents of array day_mon is: -- google -- yahoo -- amazon  contents of array day_tu is: -- cnn -- msnbc -- google  contents of array day_wed is: -- nytimes -- fidelity -- stackoverflow