How to merge two arrays in a zipper like fashion in Bash?

Question

I am trying to merge two arrays into one in a zipper like fashion. I have difficulty to make that happen.

array1=(one three five seven)
array2=(two four six          


        

Answer 1

This is based on RTLinuxSW's answer, with the improvement from Paused until further notice's comment, which adds support for sparse and associative arrays.

for index in "${!array1[@]}"; do  # Also, quote indices
    result+=( "${array1[$index]}" "${array2[$index]}" )
done

After:

$ echo "${result[@]}"
one two three four five six seven eight
$ declare -p result
declare -a result=([0]="one" [1]="two" [2]="three" [3]="four" [4]="five" [5]="six" [6]="seven" [7]="eight")

This assumes the indices of the two arrays are identical.