How can I get unique values from an array in Bash?

Question

I\'ve got almost the same question as here.

I have an array which contains aa ab aa ac aa ad, etc. Now I want to select all unique elements from this ar

Answer 1

Another option for dealing with embedded whitespace, is to null-delimit with printf, make distinct with sort, then use a loop to pack it back into an array:

input=(a b c "$(printf "d\ne")" b c "$(printf "d\ne")")
output=()

while read -rd $'' element
do 
  output+=("$element")
done < <(printf "%s\0" "${input[@]}" | sort -uz)

At the end of this, input and output contain the desired values (provided order isn't important):

$ printf "%q\n" "${input[@]}"
a
b
c
$'d\ne'
b
c
$'d\ne'

$ printf "%q\n" "${output[@]}"
a
b
c
$'d\ne'