bash: how to delete elements from an array based on a pattern

Question

Say I have a bash array (e.g. the array of all parameters) and want to delete all parameters matching a certain pattern or alternatively copy all remaining elements to a new

Answer 1

I defined and used following function:

# Removes elements from an array based on a given regex pattern.
# Usage: filter_arr pattern array
# Usage: filter_arr pattern element1 element2 ...
filter_arr() {  
    arr=($@)
    arr=(${arr[@]:1})
    dirs=($(for i in ${arr[@]}
        do echo $i
    done | grep -v $1))
    echo ${dirs[@]}
}

Example usage:

$ arr=(chicken egg hen omelette)
$ filter_arr "n$" ${arr[@]}

Output:

egg omelette

The output from function is a string. To convert it back to an array:

$ arr2=(`filter_arr "n$" ${arr[@]}`)