I have a command that can receive a list of file paths, newline separated, from stdin. I have these file paths stored in an array. How should I send the array elements to the command?
I have used the following, but have a vague feeling that I'm not doing it efficiently:
files=("/first/file" "/second/file" "/some/directory" "/file/with spaces")
for i in "${places[@]}" ; do echo "$i" ; done | command ...1 Answer
I prefer printf:
printf "%s\n" "${array[@]}" | ...You can also use IFS to join array elements using a character:
(IFS=$'\n'; echo "${array[*]}") | ...The difference between "${array[@]}" and "${array[*]}" is that the former expands to the array elements as separate words, the latter expands to a single word formed by joining the array elements using the first character of IFS.
