Reading filenames into an array

Question

I want to get a list of files and then read the results into an array where each array element corresponds to a file name. Is this possible?

Answer 1

Actually, ls isn't the way to go. Try this:

declare -a FILELIST
for f in *; do 
    #FILELIST[length_of_FILELIST + 1]=filename
    FILELIST[${#FILELIST[@]}+1]=$(echo "$f");
done

To get a filename from the array use:

echo ${FILELIST[x]}

To get n filenames from the array starting from x use:

echo ${FILELIST[@]:x:n}

For a great tutorial on bash arrays, see: http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/06/bash-array-tutorial/