Bash indirect reference to an associative array

Question

In this very simplified example, I need to address both key and value of an array element:

declare -A writer
writer[H.P.]=Lovecraft
writer[Stephen]=King
writ         


        

Answer 1

Since Bash 4.3, declare has a flag -n to define references (this is loosely equivalent to references in C++). This flag tremendously simplifies your problem here:

fullname() {
    declare -nl pointer="$1"
    for i in "${!pointer[@]}"
    do
        echo "${pointer[$i]} $i"
    done
}

It will be safe if you're having spaces or funny symbols in the keys of your hash (unlike the accepted answer).