Iterating over arrays in Bash Scripting - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Iterating over arrays

📖 Scenario: You are managing a list of fruits in a small fruit shop. You want to write a script that goes through each fruit in your list and shows it on the screen.

🎯 Goal: Build a Bash script that creates an array of fruits, sets up a counter, loops through the array to print each fruit with its number, and finally displays all the fruits one by one.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an array called fruits with the exact values: Apple, Banana, Cherry, Date, Elderberry

Create a variable called count and set it to 1

Use a for loop with the variable fruit to iterate over the fruits array

Inside the loop, print the current count and fruit, then increase count by 1

Print each fruit on its own line as the final output

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Automating tasks like listing items, processing lists of files, or managing simple inventories.

💼 Career

Basic scripting skills like looping over arrays are essential for system administrators, DevOps engineers, and anyone working with automation.

1

Create the fruits array

Create an array called fruits with these exact values: Apple, Banana, Cherry, Date, Elderberry.

Bash Scripting

# Create the fruits array
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use parentheses () to create an array in Bash.

2

Set up the counter

Create a variable called count and set it to 1.

Bash Scripting

fruits=(Apple Banana Cherry Date Elderberry)
# Create a variable called count and set it to 1
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Just write count=1 to start counting from one.

3

Loop through the fruits array

Use a for loop with the variable fruit to iterate over the fruits array. Inside the loop, print the current count and fruit, then increase count by 1.

Bash Scripting

fruits=(Apple Banana Cherry Date Elderberry)
count=1
# Use a for loop with fruit to iterate over fruits
# Inside the loop, print count and fruit, then increase count
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use for fruit in "${fruits[@]}" to loop over all fruits.

4

Print the final output

Run the script to print each fruit with its number on its own line.

Bash Scripting

fruits=(Apple Banana Cherry Date Elderberry)
count=1
for fruit in "${fruits[@]}"; do
    echo "$count. $fruit"
    ((count++))
done
# Run the script to print the fruits
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Just run the script. The echo inside the loop prints each fruit with its number.