Casing arrow keys in bash

Question

Is it possible to case arrow keys in a bash script to run a certain set of commands if the up/left arrow keys are pressed, and a certain set if the down/right arrow keys are

Answer 1

None of the above answers have worked for me! I had to grab bits and pieces from many answers in this thread, as well as other searches via google. It took me about an hour to concoct this.

I am running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and this works for me (although, it may not be perfect, as I had to 'hack' at it):

waitkey() {
  local end=""
  local key=""

  echo
  echo "   Press ESC ... "

  while [ "$end" == "" ]; do
    read -rsn1 key
    case "$key" in
      $'\x1b')
        local k=""
        # I'm not sure why I have to do this if statement,
        # but without it, there are errors.  took forever
        # to figure out why 'read' would dump me outta the script
        if [ "$IFS" ]; then
          read -rsn1 -t 0.1 holder && k="$holder"
        else
          IFS=read -rsn1 -t 0.1 holder && k="$holder"
        fi 

        if [ "$k" == "[" ]; then
          read -rsn1 -t 0.1 holder && kk="$holder"

          ##############################
          # you put your arrow code here
          #
          # eg:
          #  case "$kk" in
          #    "A") echo "up arrow!" ;; # do something ...
          #  esac
          ##############################
        elif [ "$k" == "O" ]; then
          read -rsn1 -t 0.1 holder && kk="$holder"

          # I am honestly not knowing what this is for
        elif [ "$k" == "" ]; then
          end=1
        fi
    esac
  done
}