How to cut and assign the string to a dynamic array inside the for loop - bash

Question

This is what i have done to perform this function but I am not getting what i want.
#!/bin/sh
DIRECTIONPART1=4-7-9
for (( i=1; i<=3; i++ ))
do
x=`echo $DIRECTIONPART1| awk -F'-' '{print $i}'`
myarray[$i]=$x
done
for (( c=1; c<=3; c++ ))
do
echo ${myarray[$c]}
done
Problem we realised at this step
x=`echo $DIRECTIONPART1| awk -F'-' '{print $i}'`
Please help me in getting the result
This is what i get :
4-7-9
4-7-9
4-7-9
But I want this:
4
7
9

Answer 1

you are right with line of problem. The problem is that you cant use $i as variable in print. I have tried little workaround which worked for me:
x=`echo $DIRECTIONPART1| awk -F '-' -v var=$i '{print $var }'`
in all it looks like:
#!/bin/sh
DIRECTIONPART1=4-7-9
for (( i=1; i<=3; i++ ))
do
x=`echo $DIRECTIONPART1| awk -F '-' -v var=$i '{print $var }'`
myarray[$i]=$x
done
for (( c=1; c<=3; c++ ))
do
echo ${myarray[$c]}
done
with expected output:
# sh test.sh
4
7
9
#

Answer 2

The simplest portable way to get the desired output is to use $IFS (in a subshell):
#!/bin/sh
DIRECTIONPART1=4-7-9
(IFS=- && echo $DIRECTIONPART1)
The shell array would not work portably, as POSIX, ksh, and bash do not
agree on arrays. POSIX doesn't have any; ksh and bash use different syntax.
If you really want an array, I would suggest to do the entire thing in awk:
#!/bin/sh
DIRECTIONPART1=4-7-9
awk -v v=${DIRECTIONPART1} 'BEGIN {
n=split(v,a,"-")
for (i=1;i<=n;i++) {
print a[i]
}
}'
This will produce one line for each value in the string:
4
7
9
And if you want bash arrays, drop the #!/bin/sh, and do something like this:
#!/bin/bash
DIRECTIONPART1=4-7-9
A=( $(IFS=- && echo $DIRECTIONPART1) )
for ((i=0;i<=${#A[#]};i++))
do
echo ${A[i]}
done

Answer 3

Calling awk multiple times, or even once, is not the right thing to do. Use the bash built-in read to populate the array.
# Note that the quotes here are only necessary to
# work around a bug that was fixed in bash 4.3. It
# doesn't hurt to use them in any version, though.
$ IFS=- read -a myarray <<< "$DIRECTIONPART_1"
$ printf '%s\n' "${myarray[#]}"
4
7
9

Answer 4

[akshay#localhost tmp]$ bash test.sh
#!/usr/bin/env bash
DIRECTIONPART1=4-7-9
# Create array
IFS='-' read -a array <<< "$DIRECTIONPART1"
#To access an individual element:
echo "${array[0]}"
#To iterate over the elements:
for element in "${array[#]}"
do
echo "$element"
done
#To get both the index and the value:
for index in "${!array[#]}"
do
echo "$index ${array[index]}"
done
Output
[akshay#localhost tmp]$ bash test.sh
4
4
7
9
0 4
1 7
2 9
OR
[akshay#localhost tmp]$ cat test1.sh
#!/usr/bin/env bash
DIRECTIONPART1=4-7-9
array=(${DIRECTIONPART1//-/ })
for index in "${!array[#]}"
do
echo "$index ${array[index]}"
done
Output
[akshay#localhost tmp]$ bash test1.sh
0 4
1 7
2 9