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up vote 4 down vote favorite

I've an array coming from the output of a command:

array=(saf sri trip tata strokes)

Now I want to filter items based on user input. The user can also use wildcards, so if the user enters *tr*, the output should be 

trip strokes
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What should the output be if the user enters tr with no wildcard? Nothing? – terdon♦ 9 hours ago
up vote 6 down vote

It's easier with zsh:

$ array=(saf sri trip tata strokes)
$ pattern='*tr*'
$ printf '%s\n' ${(M)array:#$~pattern}
trip
strokes
  • ${array:#pattern}: expands to the elements of the array that don't match the pattern.
  • (M) (for match): reverts the meaning of the :# operator to expand to the elements that match instead
  • $~pattern, causes the content of $pattern to be taken as a pattern.
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up vote 5 down vote

One way to do it:

array=(saf sri trip tata strokes)                      
input=*tr*
for foo in "${array[@]}"; do
    case "$foo" in
        $input) printf '%s\n' "$foo" ;;
    esac
done
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