Parsing a string using bash function

Question

I'm trying to replace some codes with bash function to reuse it. So my previous codes are:

#!/bin/bash
set aline=" dsfsdf | fsdfff | yuhfd "
set line_parsed=`echo $aline | tr '|' "\n"`
echo ${line_parsed[1]}

Which outputs dsfsdf.

Now, if I'm trying to put the sentence in a function, I cannot get it right:

#!/bin/bash
parseLine ()
{
set line_parsed=`$echo $1 | tr '|' "\n"`
echo ${line_parsed[1]}
}
set aline=" dsfsdf | fsdfff | yuhfd "
parseLine $aline

Is there a syntax error?

Answer 1

To create an array from string, use:

IFS='|' read -r -a line_parsed <<< "$aline"

---

• IFS='|' sets bashs internal field seprator to |
• read reads from its standard input file descriptor
  • -r Backslash does not act as an escape character.
  • -a line_parsed create an array named line_parsed
• <<< "$aline" is a Here string, which passes the contents of $aline to reads standard input.

You will now have an array. echo "${line_parsed[0]}" will give you the first element of the splitted string.

---

All of that in a function:

parseLine ()
{
  IFS='|' read -r -a line_parsed <<< "$1"
  echo "${line_parsed[0]}"
}

This can now be called like this:

$ parseLine "dsfsdf | fsdfff | yuhfd "
dsfsdf